Today, the distinction between “American” and “foreign” vehicles is not so clear: Some models produced by the American-owned Detroit Three carmakers have a smaller share of domestic parts than models produced by foreign-owned carmakers. This article examines how much domestic content...

In linking demographic trends of the last two decades to the geographic dispersion of the auto industry, this article finds that the addition of a large plant significantly influences the migration experience of the host county as well as counties adjacent to it.

Exports of U.S. made auto parts have stalled in recent years, while import levels of auto parts have continued to increase. The authors detail the magnitude and destination of U.S. imports and exports of specific auto parts in order to assess the challenges facing U.S. parts suppliers.

Analysis of a large set of plant-level data shows the auto supplier industry to be highly spatially concentrated. Data on location of the plants' customers, however, suggest that immediate proximity to assembly plant is not necessary, despite a production system that emphasized low inventories...

The authors examine changes in the footprint of the auto industry in the United States, starting in 1980 and tracking them through 2003. Their formal analysis of assembly and supplier plant locations traces the reorientation of the auto region from one that extends east–west to one that...

The introduction of a new manufacturing system provides a unique opportunity to analyze its effects on the governance structure of vertical relationships. This paper focuses on the possible effects of lean manufacturing on the decision to vertically integrate. Transaction cost theory provides...

Mexico’s share of automotive production has grown relative to those of its neighbors to the north because the country has become more integrated with North America and pursued trade agreements with numerous other countries. Those developments have boosted Mexico’s motor vehicle production by...