Public policy, sectoral specialisation and spatial concentration: Irish manufacturing 1985-2002

Abstract

For over fifty years Ireland has pursued an industrial policy that has had at its core the generation of sustainable manufacturing jobs spread across all regions of the country. From the late 1980s the emphasis on sustainability has increasingly been reflected in the promotion of new and expanding projects in high-tech sectors, while from the late 1990s the regional dimension of policy has been reflected in attempts to create strong manufacturing centres in the regions rather than the regional spread of projects. This paper examines the progress made between 1985 and 2002 in achieving greater sectoral specialisation and spatial dispersion in Irish manufacturing. The analysis focuses separately on multinational enterprises (MNEs) and local enterprises (LEs), and distinguishes two time periods ? 1985- 1993 and 1993-2002. Net changes in employment at an abridged NACE 2-digit level are used to measure sectoral change and NUTS-2 and NUTS-3 regions are used to examine regional changes. Hirschman-Herfindahl indices are employed to measure changes in spatial concentration by sector and sectoral specialisation by county in three-year sub-periods. We find increasing sectoral and spatial concentration of MNE employment, but more spatially dispersed and less sectoral concentration of LE employment over the period. Additionally, we examine the co-location patterns of MNEs and LEs using correlation coefficients at spatial and sectoral levels, and also at county levels. At national level there is evidence of some degree of spatial separation between MNEs and LEs and a high and increasing level of sectoral dualism between MNEs and LEs in Irish manufacturing. However, at county level we find a wide variation in the patterns of co-location by sector.