The changing economic significance of consumer durables resulting from the evolution of productive systems

The current tendency towards product differentiation in many areas of manufacturing is generally considered to be extremely positive. What we have attempted to do here is to verify the real degree of diversification that exists, by means ofthe measurement ofthe global performance ofthe most important household appliances, calculated using technical specifications available in the market. The figures enable us to evaluate the actual degree ofdiversification, and to calculate the Price/Global Performance ratio, a real measure ofthe relationship between the global technical performance of a product and its price, in order to get a critical understanding ofthe technical and economic results ofdiversification. Furthermore, we have also carried out an analysis ofcorrelation designed to support ‘‘empirical’’ evidence.