IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/taf/rjapxx/v19y2014i2p369-386.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Labor-intensive industries in middle-income countries: traps, challenges, and the local garment market in Thailand

Author

Listed:
  • Kenta Goto
  • Tamaki Endo

Abstract

How can labor-intensive industries in middle-income countries avoid the ‘middle-income trap’ and evolve as dynamic industries? This article addresses this question by focusing on the local garment industry in Thailand. Thailand's garment industry became fully integrated into international production networks in the 1980s, and was once among the main drivers of its manufacturing-based export growth. However, with rising wages and labor shortages, there is strong need to upgrade and shift from labor-intensive assembly to higher value-added functions. In contrast to the export-oriented sector, the local garment markets are primarily served by small informal garment suppliers. Nevertheless, some of the suppliers undertake functions that are typically more knowledge intensive, including designing and marketing. In this context, this paper discusses what implications this local-based industry has in overcoming possible middle-income traps, and suggests that domestic oriented policies could play key roles.

Suggested Citation

  • Kenta Goto & Tamaki Endo, 2014. "Labor-intensive industries in middle-income countries: traps, challenges, and the local garment market in Thailand," Journal of the Asia Pacific Economy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 19(2), pages 369-386, April.
    • Handle: RePEc:taf:rjapxx:v:19:y:2014:i:2:p:369-386
    DOI: 10.1080/13547860.2014.880283
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/13547860.2014.880283
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1080/13547860.2014.880283?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Archanun Kohpaiboon & Pisut Kulthanavit & Juthathip Jongwanich, 2012. "Structural Adjustment and International Migration: An Analysis of the Thai Clothing Industry," Oxford Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 40(2), pages 231-260, June.
    2. Giuliani, Elisa & Pietrobelli, Carlo & Rabellotti, Roberta, 2005. "Upgrading in Global Value Chains: Lessons from Latin American Clusters," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 33(4), pages 549-573, April.
    3. Suphat Suphachalasai, 1990. "Export growth of Thai clothing and textiles," The World Economy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 13(1), pages 51-73, March.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Samutpradit, Saisawat, 2024. "Employment effects of minimum wages in a dual economy: Evidence from Thailand," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 168(C).
    2. Tiara Maharani & Maman Setiawan, 2019. "The Relationship Between Labor Wage and the Labor Productivity of the Indonesian Textile and Garment Industry," Working Papers in Economics and Development Studies (WoPEDS) 201902, Department of Economics, Padjadjaran University, revised Jan 2020.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Alina Florentina Avrigeanu & Flavia Gabriela Anghel & Elena Radu, 2010. "PLUSES AND MINUSES OF BEING IN A GLOBAL VALUE CHAIN – THE CASE OF ROMANIAN APPAREL SMEs," JOURNAL STUDIA UNIVERSITATIS BABES-BOLYAI NEGOTIA, Babes-Bolyai University, Faculty of Business.
    2. -, 2012. "Latin American Economic Outlook 2013: SMEs policies for structural change," Coediciones, Naciones Unidas Comisión Económica para América Latina y el Caribe (CEPAL), number 1464 edited by Oecd.
    3. Ayako Ebata & Hayley MacGregor & Michael Loevinsohn & Khine Su Win & Alexander W. Tucker, 0. "Value Chain Governance, Power and Negative Externalities: What Influences Efforts to Control Pig Diseases in Myanmar?," The European Journal of Development Research, Palgrave Macmillan;European Association of Development Research and Training Institutes (EADI), vol. 0, pages 1-22.
    4. Keun Lee & Di Qu & Zhuqing Mao, 2021. "Global Value Chains, Industrial Policy, and Industrial Upgrading: Automotive Sectors in Malaysia, Thailand, and China in Comparison with Korea," The European Journal of Development Research, Palgrave Macmillan;European Association of Development Research and Training Institutes (EADI), vol. 33(2), pages 275-303, April.
    5. Rich, Karl M. & Ross, R. Brent & Baker, A. Derek & Negassa, Asfaw, 2011. "Quantifying value chain analysis in the context of livestock systems in developing countries," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 36(2), pages 214-222, April.
    6. Alexandra Sotiriou & Andrés Rodríguez-Pose, 2021. "Chinese vs. US Trade in an Emerging Country: The Impact of Trade Openness in Chile," Journal of Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 57(12), pages 2095-2111, December.
    7. Tieng Kimseng & Amna Javed & Chawalit Jeenanunta & Youji Kohda, 2020. "Sustaining Innovation through Joining Global Supply Chain Networks: The Case of Manufacturing Firms in Thailand," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(13), pages 1-17, June.
    8. Anna Giunta & Domenico Scalera & Francesco Trivieri & Jeffrey B. Nugent & Mariarosaria Agostino, 2011. "Firm Productivity, Organizational Choice and Global Value Chain," Working Papers 2011R09, Orkestra - Basque Institute of Competitiveness.
    9. Keijzer, Charlotte & Iizuka, Michiko, 2017. "Pathways for capacity building in heterogeneous value chains: Evidence from the case of IT-enabled services in South Africa," MERIT Working Papers 2017-012, United Nations University - Maastricht Economic and Social Research Institute on Innovation and Technology (MERIT).
    10. Pietrobelli, Carlo, 2019. "Modern industrial policy in Latin America: Lessons from cluster development policies," MERIT Working Papers 2019-031, United Nations University - Maastricht Economic and Social Research Institute on Innovation and Technology (MERIT).
    11. Slavo Radosevic & Katerina Ciampi Stancova, 2018. "Internationalising Smart Specialisation: Assessment and Issues in the Case of EU New Member States," Journal of the Knowledge Economy, Springer;Portland International Center for Management of Engineering and Technology (PICMET), vol. 9(1), pages 263-293, March.
    12. Jim Huangnan Shen & Luyao Zhang & Chien‐Chiang Lee & Jun Zhang & Leilei Shen, 2021. "Towards a dynamic model of the industrial upgrading with global value chains," The World Economy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 44(9), pages 2683-2702, September.
    13. Pierluigi Montalbano & Silvia Nenci & Carlo Pietrobelli, 2018. "Opening and linking up: firms, GVCs, and productivity in Latin America," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 50(4), pages 917-935, April.
    14. Matias Ramirez & Ian Clarke & Laurens Klerkx, 2018. "Analysing intermediary organisations and their influence on upgrading in emerging agricultural clusters," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 50(6), pages 1314-1335, September.
    15. Soliman, Salma & Papanastassiou, Marina & Saka-Helmhout, Ayse, 2023. "The role of subsidiaries in Global Value Chains (GVCs): An institutional voids perspective on LVC upgrading and integration," Journal of International Management, Elsevier, vol. 29(2).
    16. Narula, Rajneesh, 2010. "Much ado about nothing, or sirens of a brave new world?: MNE activity from developing countries and its significance for development," MERIT Working Papers 2010-021, United Nations University - Maastricht Economic and Social Research Institute on Innovation and Technology (MERIT).
    17. Paola Perez-Aleman, 2011. "Collective Learning in Global Diffusion: Spreading Quality Standards in a Developing Country Cluster," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 22(1), pages 173-189, February.
    18. Pham, Hanh Song Thi & Petersen, Bent, 2021. "The bargaining power, value capture, and export performance of Vietnamese manufacturers in global value chains," International Business Review, Elsevier, vol. 30(6).
    19. Reeg, Caroline, 2015. "Micro and small enterprises as drivers for job creation and decent work," IDOS Discussion Papers 10/2015, German Institute of Development and Sustainability (IDOS).
    20. Elena Batunova & Giovanni Perucca, 2020. "Population shrinkage and economic growth in Russian regions 1998–2012," Regional Science Policy & Practice, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 12(4), pages 595-609, August.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:taf:rjapxx:v:19:y:2014:i:2:p:369-386. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Chris Longhurst (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.tandfonline.com/rjap .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.