Who Really Made Your Car? Restructuring and Geographic Change in the Auto Industry

This book provides a comprehensive look at an industry that is responsible for up to 70 percent of the value added in the manufacture of motor vehicles and whose employees outnumber final assembly workers by nearly four to one: auto parts suppliers. Klier and Rubenstein present the key characteristics of the vast network of parts suppliers and describe the changing geographics of U.S. motor vehicle production at the local, regional, national, and international levels. This helps illustrate the challenges in store for motor vehicle parts production in the United States and especially in the Midwest.

Thomas Klier is a senior economist in the economic research department at the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago.

James Rubenstein is professor of geography at Miami University, Ohio.