European Integration and the Spatial Dynamics of Manufacturing-Employment Change

Abstract

The author examines the dynamics of manufacturing-employment change in thirteen European Union countries between 1978 and 1996, mainly through the utilisation of shift-share techniques. Despite the momentum that European integration gained over this period, the key finding is that the geography of manufacturing employment has remained almost intact. Processes operating at the European scale appear to have the largest impact on labour outcomes in each member state, while there is little deviation from the widespread declining trends. Spatial stability is reinforced even further through the homogeneity of several national industrial structures. In addition, the moderate increase in the industrial specialisation of the participating economies, and the localisation tendencies of a few traditional subsectors, pose little if any threat to the stability of the present map of manufacturing distribution. This evidence suggests that, contrary to some political rhetoric, the integration process has not, so far at least, adversely affected the relative competitiveness of manufacturing either in peripheral or in core countries.

Industrial growth, economic integration and structural change: evidence from the EU new member-states regions

“…Yet, the EU experience (Amiti 1997;Krieger-Boden 2000;Melachroinos 2002) does not seem to support the neoclassical claim. Core EU regions generate advantages related to agglomeration economies and increasing returns to scale (IRS) that lead to differential growth performance.…”

A border regions typology in the enlarged European Union

“…Skepticism, nevertheless, also exists in the less advanced, border, regions regarding their ability to take advantage of the opportunities offered by economic integration, as they are thought to be poorly adjusted (in terms of economic and institutional structures, human capital and technology) to the conditions and demands of the free-market economic environment (Melachroinos 2002).…”

Integration, spatial dynamics and regional policy dilemmas in the European Union

“…Although there is a strong consensus that the market-based process of economic integration is a positive-sum game increasing aggregate effi ciency (Heckscher, 1919(Heckscher, /1991Ohlin, 1933;Samuelson, 1949;Solow, 1956;Swan, 1956;Borjas, 1989;Greenwood et al, 1991), the allocation of overall welfare gains is a subject of debate (Amin et al, 1992;Gianneti, 2002;Guerrieri and Rossi, 2002;Melachroinos, 2002;Petrakos et al, 2005c). Higher levels of competition -especially imperfect competition -are deemed to result to an uneven distribution of the benefi ts of economic integration, increasing spatial imbalances (Lyons et al, 2001;Martin and Ottaviano, 2001;Ciccone, 2002;Brülhart and Elliott, 2004).…”