The space between markets and hierarchies

RELOCATING economic production is nothing new, and
companies have continually sought to move business activity to areas with cheaper labor markets as transportation costs drop. Yet over the past decade there has been a notable increase in the willingness of firms to cast their supply chains beyond the boundaries of the United States. For manufacturing firms, passage of the
North American Free Trade Agreement (“NAFTA”) in 1994 represented a major watershed. High profile companies quickly shifted portions of their work to Mexican “maquiladoras,” laborintensive assembly operations located just over the border. And China has emerged, of course, as a world manufacturing center through its tax-advantaged economic zones and shockingly low labor rates.