ABSTRACT
The factor demand relationships in the textile mill sector have changed significantly in response to technological change, scale effects, and price changes. The effects of technological change on factor demands for capital and labor account for more than one-third of the total change in their cost shares. The technological bias in the textile mill sector is found to be labor-saving and capital-using. Significant structural change in the textile sector corresponds to a period of new technology and introduction of the Multi Fiber Arrangement. Foreign competition in the world trade of textile and apparel products has become intense as suggested by an import surge in the 1980s. Great pressures of increasing imports on the US textile mills and apparel manufacturing firms have been repeatedly documented in the US Industrial Outlook series. Due to foreign competition, textile mills have experienced significant technological change. New technology has transformed the textile sector into a capital-intensive operation.
