Hostname: page-component-8448b6f56d-wq2xx Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-19T23:51:12.988Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The Determinants of Plant Survival in the U.S. Radio Equipment Industry During the Great Depression

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  16 December 2015

Peter Scott  and
Nicolas Ziebarth
Peter Scott
Affiliation:
Peter Scott is Professor of International Business History, University of Reading — International Business & Strategy, Reading, Berkshire, United Kingdom. E-mail: p.m.scott@reading.ac.uk.
Nicolas Ziebarth
Affiliation:
Nicolas Ziebarth is Assistant Professor, University of Iowa – Economics, W344 PBB 21 E. Market St., Iowa City, Iowa 52245. E-mail: nicolas-ziebarth@uiowa.edu.
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Automobile manufacture is generally regarded as the paradigmatic mass production industry, with large plants able to exploit scale economies. We argue that the radio industry also sheds important light on evolving production technology and determinants of competitive success in inter-war manufacturing. Timothy F. Bresnahan and Daniel M.G. Raff (1991) showed that productivity differences resulting from scale in the auto industry translated into differences in exit rates during the Depression. We find that technical scale economies did not play a large role in the radio industry. Instead selection during the Depression was on non-“technical” productivity factors, including whether or not a plant's parent company owned a brand.

Type
Articles
Information
The Journal of Economic History , Volume 75 , Issue 4 , December 2015 , pp. 1097 - 1127
Copyright
Copyright © The Economic History Association 2015 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

We thank the Hagley Museum Library, Library of Congress, Smithsonian National Museum of American History, and Lemelson Center Archives for generous assistance with our research. Thanks are also due to the Economic History Society and the Universities of Iowa and Reading for financial support and to Leslie Hannah, Teresa Da Silva Lopes, Chris Vickers, and James Walker, for comments on earlier drafts. We also thank two anonymous referees and the editor of this Journal Paul Rhode, for very helpful advice. Any errors are our own.

References

REFERENCES

Anderson, Oscar E. Refrigeration in America. A History of a New Technology and its Impact. Port Washington, N.Y.: Kennikat Press, 1953.Google Scholar
Angel, David P., and James Engstrom. “Manufacturing Systems and Technological Change: The U.S. Personal Computer Industry.” Economic Geography 71, no. 1 (1995): 79–102.Google Scholar
Bain, Joe S. Barriers to New Competition. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1956.Google Scholar
Borden, Neil. The Economic Effects of Advertising. Chicago: Irwin, 1942.Google Scholar
Bresnahan, Timothy F., and Raff, Daniel M. G.. “Intra-industry Heterogeneity and the Great Depression: The American Motor Vehicle Industry 1929–1935.” Journal of Economic History 51, no. 2 (1991): 317–31.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bresnahan, Timothy F., and Raff, Daniel M. G.. “Technological Heterogeneity, Adjustment Costs, and the Dynamic of Plant”Google Scholar
Shutdown Behaviour. The American Motor Vehicle Industry in the Time of the Great Depression.” Working Paper, 1998.Google Scholar
Cabral, Luís M.B., and Mata, José. “On the Evolution of The Firm Size Distribution: Facts and Theory.” American Economic Review 93, no. 4 (2003): 1075–90.Google Scholar
Chandler, Alfred D. Scale and Scope. The Dynamics of Industrial Capitalism. Cambridge, MA: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1990.Google Scholar
Chandler, Alfred D. Inventing the Electronic Century. The Epic Story of the Consumer Electronics and Computer Industries. New York: Free Press/Macmillan, 2001.Google Scholar
Cooper, Russell, and Haltiwanger, John. “Automobiles and the National Industrial Recovery Act: Evidence on Industry Complementarities.” Quarterly Journal of Economics 108, no. 4 (1993): 1044–71.Google Scholar
Crosley Broadcaster, 15 December 1926 .Google Scholar
Douglas, Alan. Radio Manufacturers of the 1920's. Vol. 1. A-C Dayton to J. B. Ferguson Inc. New York: Vestal, 1989a.Google Scholar
Crosley, Broadcaster. Radio Manufacturers of the 1920's. Vol. 2. Freed-Eisemann to Preiss. New York: Vestal, 1989b.Google Scholar
Crosley, Broadcaster,. Radio Manufacturers of the 1920's. Vol. 3. RCA to Zenith. New York: Vestal, 1991.Google Scholar
Emerson Radio and Phonograph Co. Small Radio. Yesterday and in the World of Tomorrow. New York: Emerson, 1943.Google Scholar
Eoyang, Thomas. “An Economic Study of the Radio Industry in the United States of America.” PhD thesis. New York, NY: Columbia University, 1936.Google Scholar
Field, Alexander J. “The Procyclical Behavior of Total Factor Productivity in the United States, 1890–2004.” Journal of Economic History 70, no. 2 (2010): 326–50.Google Scholar
Field, Alexander J. A Great Leap Forward: 1930s Depression and U.S. Economic Growth. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2012.Google Scholar
Foster, Lucia, Haltiwanger, John, and Syverson, Chad. “Reallocation, Firm Turnover, and Efficiency: Selection on Productivity or Profitability?” American Economic Review 98, no. 1 (2008): 394–425.Google Scholar
Fox, Stephen. The Mirror Makers. A History of Advertising and Its Creators. New York, NY: Morrow, 1984.Google Scholar
Gantz, Carroll. The Vacuum Cleaner. A History. Jefferson NC: McFarland, 2012.Google Scholar
Gereffi, Gary. “A Commodity Chains Framework for Analysing Global Industries.” In Background Notes for Workshop on Spreading the Gains from Globalisation, Institute of Development Studies, 1999. Accessed at www.ids.ac.uk/ids/global/conf/wkscf.html.Google Scholar
Gereffi, Gary, Humphrey, John, and Sturgeon, Timothy. “The Governance of Global Value Chains.” Review of International Political Economy 12, no. 1 (2005): 78–104.Google Scholar
Gerth, Ruth. “The Rational Approach to the Problem of Radio Design.” R.M.A. Engineer 2, no. 1 (1937): 27–30.Google Scholar
Michele, Hilmes. Radio Voices. American Broadcasting, 1922–1952. Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press, 1997.Google Scholar
Holmes, Thomas J., and Stevens, John J.. “An Alternative Theory of the Plant Size Distribution, with Geography and Intra- and International Trade.” Unpublished Paper. Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota, 2013.Google Scholar
Kaplinsky, Raphael and Morris, Mike. A Handbook for Value Chain Research. 2002. Accessed at http://www.ids.ac.uk/ids/global/pdfs/VchNov01.pdf.Google Scholar
Kehrig, Matthias. “The Cyclicality of Productivity Dispersion.” Unpublished Paper. Austin, TX: University of Texas at Austin, 2013.Google Scholar
Langley, Ralph H. “Radio Developments in 1934. Part IV — A Review of Radio Broadcast Reception during 1934.” Proceedings of the Institute of Radio Engineers 23 (1935): 433–41.Google Scholar
Langley, Ralph H. “Review of Broadcast Reception in 1935.” Proceedings of the Institute of Radio Engineers 24 (1936): 376–384.Google Scholar
Langlois, Richard N. “External Economies and Economic Progress: the Case of the Microcomputer Industry.” Business History Review, 66 (1992): 1–50.Google Scholar
Langlois, Richard N., and Robertson, Paul L., “Explaining Vertical Integration: Lessons from the American Automobile Industry.” Journal of Economic History 49, no. 2 (1989): 361–75.Google Scholar
Lee, Changkeun. “Was the Great Depression Cleansing? Evidence from the American Automobile Industry, 1929–1935.” Unpublished. Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan, 2014.Google Scholar
Maclaurin, W. Rupert, Invention and Innovation in the Radio Industry. New York: Macmillan, 1949.Google Scholar
Mander, Mary. “The Public Debate about Broadcasting in the Twenties: an Interpretive History.” Journal of Broadcasting 82, no. 2 (1984): 167–85.Google Scholar
Manning, Caroline. “Fluctuations of Employment in the Radio Industry.” Bulletin of the Women's Bureau. No. 83. Washington, DC: GPO, 1931.Google Scholar
Nelson, Philip. “Information and Consumer Behaviour.” Journal of Political Economy 78, no. 2 (1970): 311–29.Google Scholar
Nijssen, E.J. “Success Factors of Line Extensions of Fast-Moving Consumer Goods.” European Journal of Marketing 33, no. 5/6 (1999): 450–69.Google Scholar
Ohanian, Lee. “Why Did Productivity Fall So Much During the Great Depression?” American Economic Review 91, no. 2 (2001): 34–38.Google Scholar
Olney, Martha L. Buy Now, Pay Later. Advertising, Credit, and Consumer Durables in the 1920s. Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press, 1991.Google Scholar
Palmer, Gladys L., and Stoflet, Adam M.. The Labour Force of the Philadelphia Radio Industry in 1936. Philadelphia Labour Market Studies Report No. P-2, Philadelphia, PA, April 1938.Google Scholar
Radio Retailing, July 1929; October 1931; October 1933; September 1935; January 1936; January 1938.Google Scholar
Raff, Daniel M. G. “Making Cars and Making Money in the Interwar Automobile Industry: Economies of Scale and Scope and the Manufacturing behind the Marketing.” Business History Review 65, no. 4 (1991): 721–53.Google Scholar
Ramirez, Ron. Philco Radio 1928–1942. Atglen, PA: Shiffer, 1993.Google Scholar
Reddy, Srinivas K., Holak, Susan L., and Bhat, Subodh. “To Extend or not to Extend: Success Determinants of Line Extensions.” Journal of Marketing Research 31, no. 2, Special Issue on Brand Management (1994): 243–62.Google Scholar
Rees, Jonathan. Refrigeration Nation. A History of Ice, Appliances, and Enterprise in America. Baltimore: John Hopkins University Press, 2013.Google Scholar
Salter, W.E.G., Productivity and Technical Change. Cambridge, NY: Cambridge University Press, 1960.Google Scholar
Schumpeter, Joseph A. Capitalism, Socialism, and Democracy. New York: Harper and Row, 1942.Google Scholar
Scott, Peter, and Walker, James. “Advertising, Promotion, and the Competitive Advantage of Interwar British Department Stores.” Economic History Review 63, no. 4 (2010): 1105–128.Google Scholar
Scott, Peter, and Walker, James. “Bringing Entertainment into America's Homes: Marketing Radios in an Era of Rapid Technological Change.” Business History Review, forthcoming.Google Scholar
Shaked, Avner, and Sutton, John. “Relaxing Price Competition Through Product Differentiation.” The Review of Economic Studies 49, no. 1 (1982): 3–13.Google Scholar
Sobel, Robert. RCA. New York: Stein & Day, 1986.Google Scholar
Syverson, Chad. “What Determines Productivity?” Journal of Economic Literature 49, no. 2 (2012): 326–65.Google Scholar
U.S. Department of Commerce. Bureau of the Census. Biennial Census of Manufactures, 1927. Washington, DC: GPO, 1930.Google Scholar
U.S. Department of Commerce. Bureau of the Census. Biennial Census of Manufactures, 1935. Washington, DC: GPO, 1938.Google Scholar
U.S. Department of Commerce. Bureau of the Census. Sixteenth Census of the United States: 1940. Manufacturers 1939, Volume 1. Washington, DC: GPO, 1942.Google Scholar
U.S. Federal Trade Commission. Report on the House Furnishings Industry. Volume III: Kitchen Furnishings and Domestic Appliances. Washington, DC: GPO, 1925.Google Scholar
Ziebarth, Nicolas L. “Misallocation and Productivity during the Great Depression.” Unpublished Paper. Iowa City, IA: University of Iowa, 2012.Google Scholar
Ziebarth, Nicolas L. “The Great Depression through the Eyes of the Census of Manufactures.” Unpublished Paper. Iowa City, IA: University of Iowa, 2013.Google Scholar