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The Perils of Lifetime Employment Systems: Productivity Advance in the Indian and Japanese Textile Industries, 1920–1938

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  • Wolcott, Susan

Abstract

In the interwar period, Japanese textile firms were able to greatly increase labor efficiency and become the world's main exporter of cotton textiles. Meanwhile, the Indian industry stagnated and was forced to retreat behind tariff walls. This paper argues that the flexibility of the Japanese work force stemmed from its high turnover; the Indian laborers were collectively inflexible in defending lifetime careers against technical changes that reduced labor demand. As the industry requires only a few easily acquired skills, a committed work force was actually a disadvantage to Indian management.

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  • Wolcott, Susan, 1994. "The Perils of Lifetime Employment Systems: Productivity Advance in the Indian and Japanese Textile Industries, 1920–1938," The Journal of Economic History, Cambridge University Press, vol. 54(2), pages 307-324, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:cup:jechis:v:54:y:1994:i:02:p:307-324_01
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    Cited by:

    1. Oro, Oro Ufuo & Alagidede, Paul, 2018. "The Nature of the finance–growth relationship: Evidence from a panel of oil-producing countries," Economic Analysis and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 60(C), pages 89-102.
    2. Boyer, Robert, 1995. "Contemporary transformations of the japanese wage labor nexus in historical retrospect and some international comparisons," CEPREMAP Working Papers (Couverture Orange) 9517, CEPREMAP.
    3. Canton, E.J.F. & de Groot, H.L.F. & Nahuis, R., 1999. "Vested Interests and Resistance to Technology Adoption," Other publications TiSEM 0ccbafa5-3dcf-45f7-88b8-0, Tilburg University, School of Economics and Management.
    4. Alejandro Ayuso‐Díaz & Antonio Tena‐Junguito, 2020. "Trade in the shadow of power: Japanese industrial exports in the interwar years," Economic History Review, Economic History Society, vol. 73(3), pages 815-843, August.
    5. Ashvin Ahuja & Thammarak Moenjak, 2002. "Economic Arrangements and Long-Term Growth in Thailand," Working Papers 2002-05, Monetary Policy Group, Bank of Thailand.
    6. Klaus Desmet & Stephen Parente, 2014. "Resistance to Technology Adoption: The Rise and Decline of Guilds," Review of Economic Dynamics, Elsevier for the Society for Economic Dynamics, vol. 17(3), pages 437-458, July.
    7. Bishnupriya Gupta, 2011. "Wages, unions, and labour productivity: evidence from Indian cotton mills," Economic History Review, Economic History Society, vol. 64, pages 76-98, February.
    8. Boyer, Robert & Juillard, Michel, 1998. "The contemporary Japanese crisis and the transformations of the wage labor nexus," CEPREMAP Working Papers (Couverture Orange) 9822, CEPREMAP.
    9. Roy, Tirthankar, 2021. "Useful & reliable: technological transformation in colonial India," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 113442, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    10. Klaus Desmet & Stephen L. Parente, 2006. "Market Size, Trade, and the Resistance to the Adoption of Better Technology," 2006 Meeting Papers 264, Society for Economic Dynamics.
    11. Ramamurthy, Priti, 2000. "The Cotton Commodity Chain, Women, Work and Agency in India and Japan: The Case for Feminist Agro-Food Systems Research," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 28(3), pages 551-578, March.
    12. Roy, Tirthankar, 2014. "Technology in Colonial India: Three Discourses," CAGE Online Working Paper Series 198, Competitive Advantage in the Global Economy (CAGE).
    13. Stephane Straub, 2011. "Infrastructure and Development: A Critical Appraisal of the Macro-level Literature," Journal of Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 47(5), pages 683-708.
    14. Roberto Bonfatti & Björn Brey, 2024. "Trade Disruption, Industrialisation, and the Setting Sun of British Colonial Rule in India," Journal of the European Economic Association, European Economic Association, vol. 22(3), pages 1407-1451.
    15. Robert C. Allen, 2008. "A Review of Gregory Clark's A Farewell to Alms: A Brief Economic History of the World," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 46(4), pages 946-973, December.
    16. Canton, Erik J. F. & de Groot, Henri L. F. & Nahuis, Richard, 2002. "Vested interests, population ageing and technology adoption," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 18(4), pages 631-652, November.
    17. Mukherjee, Anirban & Sen, Shankhajit, 2022. "Social fragmentation and productivity in colonial India," SocArXiv zmfjn, Center for Open Science.
    18. Jerzmanowski, Michal, 2007. "Total factor productivity differences: Appropriate technology vs. efficiency," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 51(8), pages 2080-2110, November.
    19. Gupta, Bishnupriya, 2006. "Unions, Wages and Labour Productivity: Evidence from Indian Cotton Mills," Economic Research Papers 269646, University of Warwick - Department of Economics.
    20. Aditi Dixit & Elise van Nederveen Meerkerk, 2022. "Supply of labour during early industrialisation: Agricultural systems, textile factory work and gender in Japan and India, ca. 1880–1940," The Indian Economic & Social History Review, , vol. 59(2), pages 223-255, April.

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