TY  - JOUR
AB  - Argues that the influence of developments in production technology
and process innovation on the selection of the location of production
has markedly increased and, as a consequence of this, the role of wage
levels has diminished, in spite of the fact that many of the top
managers of European enterprises stubbornly continue to maintain that
the opposite is true. On the one hand challenges the statement that wage
levels in The Netherlands are too high compared with other European
countries and on the other hand (and more important) argues that the
role of wage levels has diminished in the discussion of how to increase
European employment. To illustrate the shift in industrial strategy, the
actual (re)location behaviour of a large Dutch electronics concern,
namely Philips Electronics, can be given. By examining this
corporation′s behaviour side‐by‐side with the developments in production
technology, demonstrates that, while wage costs played a significant
role in determining the location policy in large‐scale enterprises in
the 1960s and 1970s, the importance of this factor since the 1980s has
diminished. Casts a different light on the constantly reiterated
admonitions by European managers (and economists) that high wage levels
in Europe will lead to the emigration of enterprises to low‐wage
countries with disastrous consequences for the European levels of
(un)employment.
VL  - 22
IS  - 5
SN  - 0306-8293
DO  - 10.1108/03068299510087903
UR  - https://doi.org/10.1108/03068299510087903
AU  - Manders A.J.C.
PY  - 1995
Y1  - 1995/01/01
TI  - Fact and fiction: wage levels and the (re)location of production
T2  - International Journal of Social Economics
PB  - MCB UP Ltd
SP  - 15
EP  - 26
Y2  - 2024/04/27
ER  -