De-industrialization, accelerated by the financial crisis, is a long term process. The comparative advantage of emerging economies shifted towards more advanced goods and their growing populations commanded an increasing share in global demand. This shift towards a factory-free economy in high income countries has drawn the attention of policy makers in North America and Europe. Some politicians have articulated alarming views, initiating mercantilist or 'beggar-thy-neighbour' cost-competitiveness policies. Yet companies that concentrate research and design innovations at home but no longer have any factories there may be the norm in the future. This volume proposes an economic analysis of this phenomenon and includes 11 contributions which complement each other and tackle the problem from different angles.
The evidence in this book suggests that de-industrialization is a process that happens over time in all countries, even China. One implication is that criticism of China is not likely to provide a solution to these long term trends. Another implication is that the distinction between manufacturing and services is likely to become increasingly blurry. More manufacturing firms are engaging in services activities, and more wholesale firms are engaging in manufacturing. One optimistic perspective suggests that industrial country firms may be able to exploit the high-value added and skill-intensive activities associated with design and innovation, as well as distribution, which are all components of the global value chain for manufacturing.
Although this ongoing transformation of the industrial economies may be consistent with evolving comparative advantage, it has significant short-run costs and requires far-sighted investments. These include the costs to workers who are caught in the shift from an industrial to a service economy, and the need to invest in new infrastructure and education to prepare coming generations for their changing roles.
Introduction, Lionel Fontagne and Ann Harrison
1. Factory-Free Europe? A Two Unbundlings Perspective on Europe's 20th Century Manufacturing Miracle and 21st Century Manufacturing Malaise, Richard Baldwin
2. Hollowing Out of the Japanese Economy: A Long-Term Perspective, Michael J. Ryan and Farid Toubal
3. Structural Change in the OECD: Some Facts, Jean Imbs
4. The Servitization of French Manufacturing Firms, Matthieu Crozet and Emmanuel Milet
5. Factoryless Goods Producers in the US, Andrew B. Bernard and Teresa C. Fort
6. Fragmentation: Survey-Based Evidence for France, Lionel Fontagne and Aurelien D'Isanto
7. The Skill Bias of the US Trade Deficit, Rosario Crino and Paolo Epifani
8. Why Are American Workers Getting Poorer? China, Trade, and Offshoring, Avraham Ebenstein, Ann Harrison, and Margaret McMillan
9. Offshoring, Wages, and Employment: Evidence from Data Matching Imports, Firms, and Workers, Francis Kramarz
10. Globalization and Structural Change: Upheaval in the Nineties or in the Noughties?, Matteo Fiorini, Marion Jansen, and Weisi Xie
11. Are Clusters More Resilient in Crises? Evidence from French Exporters in 2008-2009, Philippe Martin, Thierry Mayer, and Florian Mayneris
