Mismanaged Trade?

Kenneth Flamm

doi:10.5771/9780815717355

Summary

The semiconductor industry is at the forefront of current tensions over international trade and investment in high technology industries. This book traces the struggle between U.S. and Japanese semiconductor producers from its origins in the 1950s to the novel experiment with "managed trade" embodied in the U.S.-Japan Semiconductor Trade Arrangements of 1986, and the current debate over continuation of elements of that agreement. Flamm provides a thorough analysis of this experiment and its consequences for U.S. semiconductor producers and users, and presents extensive discussion of patterns of competition within the semiconductor industry. Using a wealth of new data, he argues that a fundamentally new trade regime for high technology industries is needed to escape from the present impasse. He lays out the alternatives, from laissez-faire to managed trade, and argues strongly for a new set of international ground rules to regulate acceptable behavior by government and firms in high-tech industries.

Flamm's detailed analysis of competition within the semiconductor industry will be of great value to those interested in the industrial organization of high-technology industries, as well as those concerned with trade and technology policy, international competition, and Japanese industrial policies.

Search publication

Bibliographic data

Copyright year: 2010
ISBN-Print: 978-0-8157-2846-7
ISBN-Online: 978-0-8157-1735-5
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield, Lanham
Language: English
Pages: 472
Product type: Book Titles

1. Contents No access
1. Challenges for Public Policy No access
2. Technology and Industrial Structure in Semiconductors No access
3. International Competition in Semiconductors No access
4. Strategic Policy in the United States No access
1. First Steps No access
2. Early Exports in Electronics No access
3. The Seal of Approval No access
4. Protecting the Japanese Market No access
5. The Integrated Circuit Arrives in Japan No access
6. A Secret Truce in the "Patent War" No access
7. Battles in the LSI Market No access
8. First Steps toward Liberalization and "Dumping" No access
9. The "Calculator War" No access
10. Further Liberalization and Crisis No access
11. Into the Japanese Market No access
12. NTT Arrives on the VLSI Scene No access
13. The VLSI Project No access
14. The Continuing Role of Government No access
15. Dependence in Silicon No access
16. Summary No access
1. A Threat to National Security, 1959 No access
2. Private versus Public Policy: Television Exports in the 1960s No access
3. Competition in the 1970s No access
4. "Below Cost" Dumping No access
5. Mounting Frictions: "Quality Dumping" No access
6. Organizing a Response No access
7. Competition, Collusion, or Predation? The 64K DRAM Wars No access
8. Sectoral Negotiations No access
1. A Thumbnail Historical Sketch No access
2. Evolution of the Semiconductor Trade Regime No access
3. Initial Implementation of the Arrangement, August 1986 to November 1987 No access
4. The Privatization of Restraints, December 1987 to Mid-1989 No access
5. "Coordination Structures" and "High Price Stability," 1989 to 1990 No access
6. U.S. Memories to the Rescue No access
7. Aftermath: The Second Semiconductor Trade Arrangement No access
1. Impacts on Semiconductor Supply and Demand No access
2. Impacts of Regional Price Differentials on Regional Welfare No access
3. DRAMs versus EPROMs No access
4. Import Promotion and the STA No access
5. Conclusions No access
6. Appendix 5A: The Economics of Contract Pricing No access
7. Appendix 5B: Construction of Estimated FMVs No access
1. The Economic Rationality of Below-Marginal-Cost Pricing No access
2. Cost Structures and Dumping in the Semiconductor Industry No access
3. Modeling the Semiconductor Product Life Cycle No access
4. Model Solution No access
5. Conclusions No access
6. Appendix 6A: A General Solution to the Problem of Optimal Capacity and Production Choice No access
7. Appendix 6B: Detailed Solution with Specific Demand and Learning Curve Assumptions No access
1. Conceptions of "Strategic" No access
2. Semiconductor Dependency and Strategic Trade Policy No access
3. Anecdotal Evidence on Private Collusion No access
4. Empirical Tests for Competition No access
5. The Costs of Facing a Cartel No access
6. More Complex Stories about Cartels No access
7. Conclusion No access
8. Appendix 7A: Solution of the Model with Strategic Behavior No access
1. Why Semiconductors? No access
2. Strategic Policy in Semiconductors No access
3. Effects of the Semiconductor Trade Arrangement No access
4. Where Do We Stand? No access
5. Pricing and Dumping No access
6. Where Do We Go from Here? No access
7. The Global Semiconductor Conference No access
8. From Here to There No access
9. Mismanaged Trade? No access
1. A No access
2. B No access
3. C No access
4. D No access
5. E No access
6. F No access
7. G No access
8. H No access
9. I No access
10. J No access
11. K No access
12. L No access
13. M No access
14. N No access
15. O No access
16. P No access
17. R No access
18. S No access
19. T No access
20. U No access
21. V No access
22. W No access
23. Y No access
24. Z No access