29 June 2007

Where does your iPod come from? (The economic perspective)

A study from UC Irvine on capturing and attributing (economic) value of a 30G iPod across its creators and manufacturers. In this reckoning, even though each 30G iPod contributes $150 of trade deficit between US and China, the actual value added to the product via the assembly etc is only about a few dollars, meaning that the trade deficit actually winds up in other places. Here's a nice summary from economist Hal Varian.

A torchlight into global assembly and logistics lines as well as a commentary on the true value of innovation.

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