The Regional Location of Indigenous and Foreign Manufacturing Establishments, 1929-1975

Abstract

Regional industrial location has been a matter of intense political interest throughout the history of the state. Details of the geographic distribution of manufacturing establishments are sparse however – particularly up to EEC accession – as reporting of the relevant data was heavily constrained by the requirement to maintain firm-level confidentiality. Our research identifies the vast majority of manufacturing establishments with workforces of 100 or more in operation in 1929 and at various dates through to 1975. Establishments of this size accounted for more than 50 per cent of the manufacturing employment recorded in the Census of Industrial Production (CIP) and are of particular importance given the positive relationship between establishment size and average compensation. Our partial repopulation of the CIP allows us to analyse the regional distribution of industry in significantly greater detail than has been possible up to this point.