ITIF：2026美国汽车产业相对竞争力衰退的成因分析报告（英文版）（47页）.pdf

1、 itif.org Explaining the Relative Competitive Decline of Americas Automotive Industry STEPHEN EZELL AND MEGHAN OSTERTAG|APRIL 2026 The competitiveness of the auto industry of the United States has waxed and waned over the past 60 years and is clearly not the globally dominant behemoth it once was.To

2、 bolster the industrys competitiveness,policymakers first must understand why it has faltered and the challenges it faces moving forward.KEY TAKEAWAYS There are several causal factors behind U.S.auto industry decline,including risk aversion,product life cycle dynamics,structural changes in productio

3、n processes from flexible to dispersed parallel systems,and management use of relational contracts.While all these factors contributed,the central issue driving the industrys relative decline in the late 20th century was that it took 10 to 15 years for the Big Three to learn,adopt,and implement the

4、lean production techniques mastered by Japanese competitors.The entrenched dominance of the U.S.mass production system would leave U.S.automakers ill-prepared when the onslaught of the Japanese automakers lean production system would arrive in the later decades of the 20th century.From 1967 to 1980,

5、Japanese automakers increased their labor productivity by 7.9 percent per year,while for U.S.auto manufacturers,the rate of increase was just 1.3 percent.Today,the U.S.auto industry faces a new set of globalization challenges,marked by the offshoring of production to Mexico and the rise of Chinas au

6、to industry.Mexicos most significant comparative advantage is wages.Adjusted for PPP,Mexican wages per auto worker were,on average,25 to 30 percent of those in the United States from 2000 to 2021.From 2003 to 2023,China experienced a nearly 300 percent increase in its share of global automotive prod