Doctoral Dissertations
Date of Award
12-1989
Degree Type
Dissertation
Degree Name
Doctor of Philosophy
Major
Human Ecology
Major Professor
Carl L. Dyer
Committee Members
William B. Locander, Jamie Kridler, Mary Frances Drake
Abstract
The purpose of this research was to examine economic profitability of domestic versus imported apparel in the United States. Aggregate estimates from price elasticities of import demand functions for six categories of imports from twelve distinct apparel exporting world regions as well as profit estimates obtained from a national sample of retailers were both utilized to estimate apparel profitability.
The research hypotheses were divided into 2 major divisions. Two hypotheses dealt with price and income demand elasticities and how these elasticities affect quantities of apparel demanded. The second group of hypotheses examined eight factors which may affect apparel profitability. The factors included: (1) brand, (2) country of origin, (3) classification of departments, (4) fashionability, (5) initial retail price, (6) methods of purchase, (7) type of item (basic versus new), and (8) quality.
Secondary data from the U.S. General Imports and Imports for Consumption and other U.S. Department of Commerce data were used to estimate the price and income elasticities. The directions of elasticities were positive 111 for income and negative for prices as economic theory suggests. Dresses and sweaters displayed the most significance across imports from the twelve world regions examined. Dresses, sweaters, and coat/suits categories were most significant with response to price per capita. Income elasticities were most significant with the skirt and slack categories.
Out of 800 randomly selected U.S. retailers, 308 responded to the survey providing data to estimate profitability factors based on initial and maintained markup of domestic and imported apparel. When using initial markup as the dependent variable on two-way, threeway, and four-way ANOVA models, significant differences were found between domestics and imported ai^parel categories. Other insignificant differences included the brand types in the sweater category; levels of fashion, initial retail price, and quality for shirts; fashion for the coat/suit category; and type of brand for the slack category. Very few significant differences were found with maintained markup.
Recommended Citation
Hathcote, Jan Montgomery, "Impact of apparel imports on retail profitability. " PhD diss., University of Tennessee, 1989.
https://trace.tennessee.edu/utk_graddiss/11660
