Toys Made in China, but Designed in…?

The previous chapters have highlighted the fact that toy recalls have been increasing over time, particularly for those made in China. The latter increase, however, is congruent with the corresponding rise in imports from China. Contrary to speculations that these recalls are occurring due to cost pressures, the data show that, in the recent past, recalls of high-priced toys have increased faster than recalls of low-priced toys, particularly for toys made in China. If low-priced toy recalls had increased, that would have been a reasonable indication of Chinese manufacturers compromising on quality. However, the absence of an increase in low-priced toy recalls does not clearly establish that there are no cost pressures. It is possible that, within Chinese manufacturing as a whole, problems may exist that simply affect products across the price spectrum. One way to examine this is to study whether the recalls occurred mainly due to poor manufacturing practices in general.