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As a country highly specialized in the production of investment goods, Germany has been especially hard hit by the global recession. Because the production profile of German industry is technology-intensive, however, there is reason to believe that Germany will emerge from the present economic crisis with renewed strength. In no other industrialized nation is production as heavily geared to research-intensive goods as it is here. Germany has increased its lead over its most significant rivals not only in motor vehicle manufacturing, but also in machinery, communication equipment, and medical and precision instruments. The success of German companies is based not only on compelling products, but also on the relative efficiency of their production processes compared to other countries.

Não obstante a relação que existe entre os conceitos de especialização industrial e de concentração geográfica de indústrias, na realidade trata-se de dois conceitos diferentes. Começando por distinguir ambos, este artigo tem por objectivo analisar a alteração estrutural na indústria transformadora portuguesa segundo duas perspectivas diferentes: a especialização das regiões em certos sectores, e a concentração regional desses sectores (indústrias). No trabalho empírico realizado foram utilizados dados anuais relativos ao período entre 1996 e 2004, com o recurso a indicadores absolutos para avaliar como evoluiu a concentração das indústrias nas regiões Portuguesas, e se a estrutura industrial dessas regiões evoluiu ou não no sentido de uma maior especialização. Os resultados obtidos sugerem elevados níveis de concentração geográfica de indústrias, e uma especialização que, não se podendo afirmar que, em geral, tenha aumentado, é variável entre as regiões.

Discriminatory government procurement may (but does not have to) interfere with international specialisation and trade flows. This paper offers a general introduction to the findings of the theoretical literature, provides some descriptive statistics on public procurement and gives a brief overview of regulatory initiatives at international level., Une politique d'achats publics biaisée en faveur des producteurs nationaux peut parfois influencer les spécialisations internationales et les flux de commerce. Cet article propose une présentation générale des résultats de la littérature théorique, présente quelques statistiques descriptives des comportements d'achats publics et un bref panorama des initiatives réglementaires internationales., Trionfetti Federico. Politiques d’achats publics et spécialisations internationales. In: Économie & prévision, n°152-153, 2002-1-2. Commerce international. pp. 141-150.

INDUSTRIAL RESTRUCTURING IN PORTUGAL IN THE EIGHTIES - This paper analyses the territorial changes un manufacturing activity in mainland Portugal during the eighties. A shift-share analysis was applied to regional employment. Its results are presented and the main reasons that explain regional differences are discussed, Finisterra, vol. 31 n.º 62 (1996)

Kein anderes großes Industrieland ist so stark auf die Produktion von forschungsintensiven Gütern ausgerichtet wie Deutschland. In der Wirtschaftskrise 2009 war aber gerade die forschungsintensive Industrie mit ihrer Exportorientierung einer Feuerprobe ausgesetzt. Der Einbruch der Umsätze hat nicht nur die Arbeitsplätze von Fachkräften, sondern auch die Refinanzierung der relativ hohen Forschungs- und Innovationsaufwendungen in diesem Industriebereich und somit seine künftige technologische Wettbewerbsfähigkeit gefährdet. Die Expertenkommission für Forschung und Innovation (EFI), welche die Bundesregierung regelmäßig über den Stand und die Perspektiven der technologischen Leistungsfähigkeit Deutschlands unterrichtet, benötigt frühzeitig Anhaltspunkte über die Entwicklung der forschungsintensiven Industrie. Detaillierte international vergleichbare Daten zur Industrieentwicklung, wie die EUKLEMS-Datenbasis und die STAN-Daten der OECD liegen jedoch nur mit zeitlicher Verzögerung von zwei bis drei Jahren vor. Für den Zeitraum von 2008 bis 2010 hat das DIW deshalb die Wertschöpfung und das Arbeitsvolumen für forschungsintensive Industrien in Deutschland, den USA, Japan, Frankreich und Großbritannien geschätzt (Kasten 1). Mit dieser erweiterten Datenbasis wurde die Entwicklung der Produktion und der Arbeitsproduktivität bis zum aktuellen Rand analysiert.

Deutschland ist mit seiner starken Spezialisierung auf die Produktion von Investitionsgütern von der weltweiten Rezession besonders betroffen. Das technologieintensive Produktionsprofil seiner Industrie spricht aber dafür, dass Deutschland gestärkt aus der gegenwärtigen Wirtschaftskrise hervorgehen wird. In keinem anderen Industrieland ist die Ausrichtung der Produktion auf forschungsintensive Güter so stark wie hierzulande. Deutschland hat gegenüber seinen wichtigsten Wettbewerbern nicht nur im Fahrzeugbau, sondern auch im Maschinenbau, in der Nachrichtentechnik, in der Medizin- und in der Messtechnik seine Spitzenposition ausgebaut. Wesentliche Grundlagen des Erfolgs der deutschen Unternehmen sind nicht nur überzeugende Produkte, sondern auch im internationalen Vergleich effiziente Produktionsweisen.

JEL Classification: F23, R12, M11, L62 / Registo de Propriedade Intelectual nº 2060/2006 (IGAC) Após vinte anos de integração europeia, a indústria automóvel espanhola mantém-se como base de exportações especializadas em veículos das gamas baixas-médias e recuou na tipologia dos componentes produzidos e exportados. O país está, sob pressão crescente, integrado num sistema macroregional em que pólos tradicionais, como França e Alemanha, se reforçaram com percursos diferenciados, e pólos, a Leste, surgiram. O cluster da Galiza integra a maior fábrica da PSA e de Espanha. No ajustamento ocorrido, a evolução da unidade da PSA introduziu um percurso em que outros actores-chave – fornecedores, sindicatos e políticos regionais – desempenharam papéis importantes na construção de compromissos de governança e na inovação institucional. A adaptação exibe, em primeiro lugar, a confirmação do percurso de especialização espanhola, modulada pelos factores locais e pelo modelo de negócio da PSA, e a emergência de embriões de transformação, de futuro incerto. A metodologia, sistémica, é composta por um sistema integrador macroeuropeu, que contempla os processos de reconfiguração da indústria e de convergência socioeconómica, e por três dispositivos: a análise macro do comércio internacional e da especialização, que inclui a interdependência dos pólos nacionais; a análise empresarial, que modela as estratégias internacionais de negócio de OEM e fornecedores; e o estudo regional, que interpreta os ajustamentos entre os actores-chave e a evolução institucional e dos compromissos. A dissertação contempla três domínios científicos principais: o comércio intra-industrial, a especialização e a localização de actividades produtivas; a transformação de modelos de negócio em espaços de integração macroregional; e os processos de evolução de clusters industriais. Twenty years after the European integration, the Spanish automotive industry remains an export base specialised in lower-medium vehicles segments and has gradually become a downgraded source of components for domestic assembly and export. The country’s location is under increasing pressure in a macroeuropean system where traditional industrial poles, like France and Germany, have strengthened their positions, albeit in different paths, and new Eastern poles are emerging. The cluster of Galicia integrates the largest PSA and Spanish assembly unit. During the adjustment process, the evolution of the PSA’s unit introduced a pathway that modulates the key-actors’ role – suppliers, unions and regional policy players – towards a new institutional setting and the evolution of governance compromises. The adaptation path has exhibited, first and foremost, the cluster’s evolution towards the Spanish specialisation, although modulated by the PSA’s business model, history and local factors; and secondly, the germens of a potential diversifying way, still uncertain. The systemic based methodology embraces a macroeuropean integrator system, which includes the industry reconfiguration and socioeconomic convergence processes, and three research devices: first, a macro analysis of international trade and specialisation in connection with the interdependence among national poles; secondly, a company-level analysis based on the international business strategies of the OEM and suppliers; finally, a regional-level study which looks at the adjustments among the key-players, the institutional evolution and emergence of new compromises. The dissertation mainly addresses three scientific domains: intra-industrial trade, specialisation and location of productive activities; business models change in macroregional integration spaces; and industrial clusters evolution.

This analysis focuses on factors determining the transition of international trade in the Czech economy. Even though the Czech economy was exposed to several structural shocks during 1993–2002 and grew at a very low rate, its external trade flows sustained an annual growth at around 10%. The restructuring in the pattern of specialisation with the EU-15 was exceptionally intensive and our results confirm that its progress can be explained by the variables used in the theories of open economies. The undergoing changes were profound and painful, but their positive final outcome is undisputable. In the econometric part of this study we quantify the determining factors of Czech exports and imports during 1993–2002 when the trade flows have undergone intensive structural and qualitative changes facilitating the trade creation. Our findings lend significance to the variables of aggregate demand and the real exchange rate, in addition to liberalisation of tariffs, evolution of unit prices of exports and imports, changes in quality, diversion in factor usage and economies of scale. Unimpeded opening-up can be a crucial driver of an in-depth restructuring, which brings positive results from the very start, even though its spillovers into an overall fast growth can be delayed.

Some recent studies have shown that specialisation of countries has tended to increase, while regional concentration of countries has tended to decrease. This seems to be counterintuitive at first glance. In this paper, we use the entropy index - as the indicator of structural change with the neatest aggregation properties to show how this divergence can happen. The main purpose of the paper is methodological, but we also apply the methodology to a specific case study: Manufacturing in the European Union since 1985. We confirm for this interesting period that increasing industrial specialisation has been offset by faster growth in the smaller Member States, with the net effect that industries have become somewhat less geographically concentrated. In terms of economic geography the evidence is in line with the second part of the inverted U-curve (where decreasing transport costs eventually foster de-concentration). This is no contradiction to increasing specialisation of countries in specific industries as predicted by many models in the old as well as the new trade theory.

Jahrelang wurde die starke industrielle Ausrichtung der deutschen Wirtschaft moniert. Deutschland sei zu stark exportorientiert, zu anfällig für Krisen, Nachfrage- und Wechselkursschwankungen, so die Kritik. Ein oberflächlicher Blick auf die Daten der jüngsten Wirtschaftskrise scheint die alten Sorgen zu bestätigen: Die Produktivität der Industrien ging deutlich zurück, die Exporte brachen dramatisch ein. Bei genauerer Betrachtung zeigt sich jedoch, dass besonders die forschungsintensive Industrie ihre Feuerprobe in der Krise bestanden hat. Durch die gemeinsame Strategie von Unternehmen, Gewerkschaften und Politik konnte sie die Beschäftigung während des globalen Nachfrageeinbruchs weitgehend halten, sich international behaupten und sich für den Aufschwung mit ihrem breiten Portfolio aus Fahrzeug- und Maschinenbau, Elektro-, Mess- und Medizintechnik hervorragend positionieren. Gerade auf den Zukunftsmärkten der Schwellenländer hat sie ihre Spitzenposition nicht nur verteidigt, sondern ihre Marktanteile während der Krise sogar noch ausgebaut. Das zeigt ein internationaler Vergleich der neuesten Daten zu Wertschöpfung, Produktivität und Außenhandel des DIW Berlin. Das Ergebnis: Die forschungsintensive Industrie in Deutschland ist bereits auf ihren langfristigen Wachstumspfad zurückgekehrt und für die Zukunft bestens positioniert.

This paper analyses the geographical specialisation of 32 manufacturing sectors over the 1972-1996 period, based on annual employment and export data for 13 European countries. Specialisation has increased continuously over the sample period in employment terms, while remaining roughly unchanged in export terms. On average, increases in specialisation were stronger prior to the launch of the Single Market than afterwards. The sectors most sensitive to the Single Market, however, showed an acceleration in specialisation after 1986. There is also evidence that low-tech industries are the most strongly specialised, and that centre-periphery gradients across countries are losing importance for industrial location in the EU.