This paper explores the meaning of reshoring and its drivers in the case of UK manufacturing and in particular its automotive sector. Drawing on interviews, policy reviews and a range of recent surveys, the paper finds that while reshoring is a discernable trend in UK manufacturing, it is less pronounced than many have claimed and that-in the UK case at least-there are severe limits as to how far this reshoring trend can go, particularly in relation to the availability of skills and finance in the supply chain. This in turn raises questions over the stance of British policy and whether more could be done, with comparisons made to US experience.

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Industrial districts and large firms: The stubborn persistence of a 'weak' productive model Andrea Colli SECTION 2. FROM THE ENGLISH ROOTS TO THE ITALIAN REVIVAL Introduction by Tiziano Raffaelli 6. Forerunners of Marshall on the industrial districts Peter Groenewegen 7. Industrial districts in Marshall's economics Brian J. Loasby vi Contents 8. External and internal economies 90 Neil Hart 9. The Italian revival of industrial districts and the foundations of political economy 103 Renzo Bianchi 10. The Italian revival of industrial districts and the foundations of industrial policy 111

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Creative industries are increasingly understood to contribute to localised innovation and dynamism. This paper provides a methodologically consistent comparison of creative industries across France, Great Britain, Italy and Spain. We map spatial agglomerations of creative activities showing evidence of urban concentration, which for Britain and France coincides with the dominance of capital cities, whilst for Spain and Italy, significant concentrations can also be found in secondary cities. The four countries also differ in the specialisation profiles and in the role played by policy makers. A lack of dove-tailing with the European Union smart agenda is argued to be a cause of concern.

This paper examines the link between cluster development and inward foreign direct investment. The conventional policy approach has been to assume that inward foreign direct investment (FDI) can stimulate significant clustering activity, thus generating significant spillovers. This paper, however, questions this and shows that, while clusters can generate significant productivity spillovers from FDI, this only occurs in pre-existing clusters. Further, the paper demonstrates that foreign-owned firms that enter clusters also appropriate spillovers when domestic firms undertake investment, raising the possibility that clusters are important locations for so called technology, or knowledge sourcing activities by MNEs.

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