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...

Amid the global recession in 2008–09, the U.S. auto industry experienced its worst downturn in recent memory. While conditions have improved in 2010, questions about which factors will shape the industry’s competitiveness remain. The Chicago Fed hosted a conference on May 10–11, 2010, at...

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...

During Peter Drucker’s talk entitled "From Counting to Measurements" he discusses accounting and measurement. During his lecture, he talks about: activity based accounting, the Coca-Cola Company and independent bottlers, automobile companies, the cluster concept, Procter & Gamble and Sam...

In the past few decades, the evolving relations between automakers and their parts suppliers have resulted in shifts in the location of production across North America. The authors explore the ongoing structural changes to the automotive industry and explain their local, regional, and...

A linearized version of Pinkse and Slade’s (1998) spatial probit estimator is used to account for the tendency of auto supplier plants to cluster together. By reducing estimation to two steps – standard probit or logit followed by two-stage least squares – linearization produces a model...

Using nonparametric descriptive tools developed by Duranton and Overman (2005), we show that both new and old auto supplier plants are highly concentrated in the eastern United States. Conditional logit models imply that much of this concentration can be explained parametrically by distance from...

On April 18 and 19, 2006, the Chicago Fed held a conference at its Detroit Branch to examine the ongoing structural changes in the U.S. auto industry. As suppliers play an increasingly central role in auto production, it has become crucial for carmakers to have a strong relationship with their...

Evolving relations between carmakers and their parts suppliers have resulted in local, regional, and international shifts in the location of production. An upcoming Chicago Fed conference in Detroit will examine these ongoing structural changes, which are affecting the prospects for the U.S....