Hostname: page-component-5c6d5d7d68-txr5j Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-08-10T03:05:33.023Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

The Efficient Diffusion of Steel Technology Across Nations

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 November 2008

David G. Tarr
Affiliation:
Federal Trade Commission, Washington, DC

Abstract

This paper attempts to explain what influenced efficient decisions in the adoption of important technology in the steel industry. An index of efficient decisions for the adoption of the basic oxygen furnace and for continuous casting is discussed theoretically and then empirically developed for the steel industries of 28 and 27 countries respectively. Statistical tests are performed to determine the influence of government ownership of the steel industries, central planning of the economies and involvement in international competition on efficient decisions regarding technology adoption. The tests reveal that both government ownership and central planning retarded efficient decisions regarding the adoption of technology.

Type
Articles
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1985

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.)

References

REFERENCES

Adams, W. and Dirlam, J. B., ‘Big Steel, Invention and Innovation’, Quarterly Journal of Economics, 05 1966, pp. 167–89.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
American Iron and Steel Institute, Steel Industry Economics and Federal Income Tax Policy, two editions, Washington, DC: AISI, 1974 and 1975.Google Scholar
American Iron and Steel Institute, Steel at the Crossroads: The American Steel Industry in the 1980's, Washington, DC: AISI, 1980.Google Scholar
Ault, D., ‘The Continued Deterioration of the Competitive Ability of the U.S. Steel Industry: The Development of Continuous Casting’, Western Economic Journal, 03 1973, pp. 8997.Google Scholar
Ault, D., ‘The Development of Continuous Casting in the U.S. Steel Industry: Reply’, Economic Inquiry, 06 1974, pp. 271–7.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Battelle Memorial Institute, Technical and Economic Analysis of the Impact of Recent Developments in Steelmaking Practices in the Supplying Industries, Columbus, October 1964.Google Scholar
Baumann, H. C, ‘The Relative Competitiveness of the Canadian and U.S. Steel Industries, 1955–70’, Economia Internationale, 02. 1974, pp. 141–56.Google Scholar
Dilley, David R., and McBride, David L., ‘Oxygen Steelmaking – Fact vs. Folklore’, Iron and Steel Engineer, October 1967, pp. 131–52.Google Scholar
Duke, Richard, Johnson, Richard, Mueller, Hans, Quails, David, Roush, Calvin, and Tarr, David, The United States Steel Industry and Its International Rivals: Trends and Factors Determining International Competitiveness, Bureau of Economics Report to the Federal Trade Commission, Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1977. (FTC staff steel report).Google Scholar
Gold, Bela, ‘Technological Diffusion in Industry: Research Needs and Shortcomings’, Journal of Industrial Economics, 03 1981, pp. 247269.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Huettner, D. A., ‘The Development of Continuous Casting in the Steel Industry,’ Economic Inquiry, June 1974, pp. 267–70.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Iron and Steel Works of the World, 2nd, 4th, 5th and 6th editions, edited by Cordero, H., , H. and Cordero, R., and Codero, R. and Serjeantson, R., respectively. London: Metal Bulletin Books, 1956, 1964, 1968 and 1974.Google Scholar
Lynn, Leonard, ‘New Data on the Diffusion of the Basic Oxygen Furnace in the U.S. and Japan’, Journal of Industrial Economics, December 1981, pp. 123–35.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Maddala, G. S., and Knight, P. T., ‘International Diffusion of Technical Change – A Case Study of the Oxygen Steel Making Process’, Economic Journal, 09 1967, pp. 531–58.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Metal Bulletin, ‘Ogishima: Portent of the Future’, March 1977, pp. 1719.Google Scholar
Metal Bulletin Monthly, ‘Continuous Casting Reference List,’ July, August and September 1975.Google Scholar
McAdams, Alan K., ‘Big Steel, Invention and Innovation, Reconsidered’, Quarterly Journal of Economics, 08 1967, pp. 457–74.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Meyer, J. R., and Herregat, G., The Basic Oxygen Steel Process’, in The Diffusion of New Industrial Processes, edited by Nabseth, Lars and Ray, G. F., Cambridge University Press, 1974.Google Scholar
Rosegger, Gerhard, ‘Diffusion and Technological Specificity: The Case of Continuous Casting’, Journal of Industrial Economics, September 1979, pp. 3953.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schenk, W. K., ‘Continuous Casting of Steel’, in The Diffusion of the New Industrial Processes: An International Study, edited by Nabseth, Lars and Ray, G. F., Cambridge University Press, 1974.Google Scholar
Sumerall, James, ‘Diffusion of the Basic Oxygen Furnace in the U.S. Steel Industry’, Journal of Industrial Economics, June 1982, pp. 421–37.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
33, ‘Continuous Casting: A Global View of Steelmaking's former “enfant terrible”’, October, November and December 1975.Google Scholar
Tarr, David, G., ‘Cyclical Dumping: The Case of Steel Products’, Journal of International Economics, February 1979, pp. 5763.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
United Nations, Economic Commission for Europe, Long Term Trends and Problems of the European Steel Industry, Geneva, 1959.Google Scholar
United Nations, Economic Commission for Europe, Comparisons of Steelmaking Processes, New York, 1962.Google Scholar
United Nations, Economic Commission for Europe, Economic Aspects of Continuous Casting of Steel, 1968.Google Scholar
Vaughan, W. and Russell, C, ‘An Analysis of the Historical Choice Among Technologies in the U.S. Steel Industry: Contributions from a Linear Programming Model’, Engineering Economist, Fall 1976, pp. 126.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Vaughan, W., Russell, C., and Cochran, Harold, Government Policies and the Adoption of Innovations in the Integrated Iron and Steel Industry, Washington, DC: Resources for the Future, 1976.Google Scholar