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.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
AmitiM, 1999, “Specialisation patterns in Europe”Weltwirtschaftliches Archiv135573–593.
2.
ArmstrongH W, 1995, “Convergence among regions of the European Union, 1950–1990”Papers in Regional Science74143–152.
3.
BarffR AKnightP LIII, 1988, “Dynamic shift-share analysis”Growth and Change191–10.
4.
BeggIDalumBGuerrieriPPiantaM, 1999, “The impact of specialisation in Europe”, in The Economic Challenge for Europe Eds FagerbergJGuerrieriPVerspagenB (Edward Elgar, Cheltenham, Glos) pp 21–45.
5.
CappelenAFagerbergJVerspagenB, 1999, “Lack of regional convergence”, in The Economic Challenge for Europe Eds FagerbergJGuerrieriPVerspagenB (Edward Elgar, Cheltenham, Glos) pp 130–148.
6.
CaslerS D, 1989, “A theoretical context for shift and share analysis”Regional Studies2343–48.
7.
De SerresAHoellerPDe la MaisonneuveC, 2001, “The width of the intra-European economic borders”, WP 304, Economics Department, OECD, Paris.
8.
DollarDWolffE N, 1993Competitiveness, Convergence, and International Specialisation (MIT Press, Cambridge, MA).
9.
DunfordM, 1993, “Regional disparities in the European Community: Evidence from the REGIO databank”Regional Studies27727–743.
10.
DunfordM, 1994, “Winners and losers: The new map of economic inequality in the European Union”European Urban and Regional Studies195–114.
11.
DunfordM, 1996, “Disparities in employment, productivity and output in the EU: The roles of labour market convergence and welfare regimes”Regional Studies30339–357.
12.
European Commission, 2001Second Report on Economic and Social Cohesion (Office for Official Publications of the European Communities, Luxembourg).
13.
FagerbergJVerspagenB, 1996, “Heading for divergence? Regional growth in Europe reconsidered”Journal of Common Market Studies34431–448.
14.
FothergillSGudginG, 1979, “In defence of shift-share”Urban Studies16309–319.
15.
FothergillSGudginG, 1982Unequal Growth, Urban and Regional Employment Change in the United Kingdom (Heinemann, London).
16.
FrostMSpenceN, 1991, “British employment in the eighties: The spatial, structural and compositional change in the workforce”Progress in Planning3575–168.
17.
GrahamD JSpenceN, 1998, “A productivity growth interpretation of the labour demand shift-share model”Regional Studies32515–525.
18.
GrahamD JSpenceN, 2000, “Manufacturing employment change, output demand, and labor productivity in the regions of Britain”International Regional Science Review23172–200.
19.
HadjimichalisC, 1994, “The fringes of Europe and EU integration: A View from the South”European Urban and Regional Studies119–29.
20.
HeimC E, 1997, “Dimensions of decline: Industrial regions in the United States and Europe, 1970–1990”International Regional Science Review20211–238.
21.
HooperP, 1996, “Comparing manufacturing output levels among the major industrial countries”, in Industry Productivity: International Comparison and Measurement Issues (OECD, Paris) pp 263–293.
22.
HudsonR, 1997, “Regional futures: Industrial restructuring, new high volume production concepts and spatial development strategies in the new Europe”Regional Studies31467–478.
23.
KeebleD, 1989, “Core–periphery disparities, recession and new regional dynamisms in the European Community”Geography741–11.
24.
KeilS R, 1997, “Regional trends in British manufacturing employment: Tests for stationarity and co-integration, 1952–1989”Regional Studies3113–24.
25.
KrugmanP, 1991Geography and Trade (MIT Press, Cambridge, MA).
26.
KrugmanPVenablesA, 1990, “Integration and the competitiveness of peripheral industry”, in Unity with Diversity in the European Community Eds BlissCBraga de MacedoJ (Cambridge University Press, Cambridge) pp 56–77.
27.
KrugmanPVenablesA J, 1996, “Integration, specialisation, and adjustment”European Economic Review40959–967.
28.
LoveridgeSSeltingA C, 1998, “A review and comparison of shift-share identities”International Regional Science Review2137–58.
29.
MarkusenA RNoponenHDriessenK, 1991, “International trade, productivity, and US regional job growth: A Shift-share interpretation”International Regional Science Review1415–39.
30.
MartinR, 1998, “Regional incentive spending for European regions”Regional Studies32527–536.
31.
MartinRTylerP, 2000, “Regional employment evolutions in the European Union: A Preliminary analysis”Regional Studies34601–616.
32.
MasseyDMeeganR A, 1979, “Labour productivity and regional employment change”Area11137–145.
33.
MelachroinosK ASpenceN, 1997, “Regional productivity dynamics of manufacturing in Greece”European Urban and Regional Studies4315–332.
34.
MelachroinosK ASpenceN, 2001, “Manufacturing productivity growth across European Union states: 1978–94”Environment and Planning A331681–1703.
35.
NevenDGouyetteC, 1995, “Regional convergence in the European Community”Journal of Common Market Studies3347–65.
36.
OECD, 1998The OECD STAN Database for Industrial Analysis 1970–1997 (OECD, Paris).
37.
O'MahonyM, 1996, “Conversion factors in relative productivity calculations: Theory and practice”, in Industry Productivity: International Comparison and Measurement Issues (OECD, Paris) pp 245–262.
38.
PaciR, 1997, “More similar and less equal: Economic growth in the European regions”Weltwirtschaftliches Archiv133609–634.
39.
PiantaMVivarelliM, 1999, “Employment dynamics and structural change in Europe”, in The Economic Challenge for Europe Eds FagerbergJGuerrieriPVerspagenB (Edward Elgar, Cheltenham, Glos) pp 83–105.
40.
Regional Studies Association, 2001Labour's New Regional Policy: An Assessment (Regional Studies Association, PO Box 2058, Seaford BN25 4QU.
41.
Rodríguez-PoseA, 1998The Dynamics of Regional Growth in Europe: Social and Political Factors (Clarendon Press, Oxford).
42.
Rodríguez-PoseA, 1999, “Convergence or divergence? Types of regional responses to socio-economic change in Western Europe”Tijdschrift voor Economische en Sociale Geografie90363–378.
43.
SapirA, 1996, “The effects of Europe's internal market program on production and trade: A First assessment”Weltwirtschaftliches Archiv132457–475.
44.
SmallboneDCumbersASyrettSLeighR, 1999, “The Single European Market and SMEs: A Comparison of its effects in the food and clothing sectors in the UK and Portugal”Regional Studies3351–62.
45.
Van ArkB, 1990, “Comparative levels of manufacturing productivity in postwar Europe: Measurement and comparisons”Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics52343–374.
46.
Van ArkB, 1995, “Manufacturing prices, productivity, and labor costs in five economies”Monthly Labor Review July, pages 56–72.
47.
VenablesA, 1999, “Geography and specialisation: Industrial belts on a circular plain”, in Market Integration, Regionalism and the Global Economy Eds BaldwinRCohenDSapirAVenablesA (Cambridge University Press, Cambridge) pp 254–273.
