This chapter analyses industrial policy in Western Europe from essentially a historical perspective in order to show the evolution of its objectives and main instruments, and the issues currently faced in times of globalisation and deep industrial structural changes. After the dominance of the neo-liberal model considering that GDP growth can only bring improvements in the standards of living of all people, whatever the underlying society, the European Union is proposing a new development model based on industrial policy as a long-term vision of development, that puts people at the heart of development in order to make the best out of resources, innovate and include all the society in the development process. The 2020 Strategy adopted by the Union in 2010 indeed aims at making the Union grow in smart, sustainable and inclusive manner. We argue that this corresponds to a vision of development as not just deriving from economic development, but also social and cultural, civil development, that could be applied also in developing and emerging countries and avoid major risks of current world economic development, such as the global auction of skills (Lauder and Brown, 2011) whereby multinationals searching for low labour costs world-wide also induce a reduction in wages and standard living for skilled workers in developed countries; this would also avoid a development making the live of future generations at risk due to the damages produced on the environment.
Industrial Policy in Western Europe: appropriate mix of goals and instruments in a multi-level governance setting
BIANCHI, Patrizio;LABORY, Sandrine
2012
Abstract
This chapter analyses industrial policy in Western Europe from essentially a historical perspective in order to show the evolution of its objectives and main instruments, and the issues currently faced in times of globalisation and deep industrial structural changes. After the dominance of the neo-liberal model considering that GDP growth can only bring improvements in the standards of living of all people, whatever the underlying society, the European Union is proposing a new development model based on industrial policy as a long-term vision of development, that puts people at the heart of development in order to make the best out of resources, innovate and include all the society in the development process. The 2020 Strategy adopted by the Union in 2010 indeed aims at making the Union grow in smart, sustainable and inclusive manner. We argue that this corresponds to a vision of development as not just deriving from economic development, but also social and cultural, civil development, that could be applied also in developing and emerging countries and avoid major risks of current world economic development, such as the global auction of skills (Lauder and Brown, 2011) whereby multinationals searching for low labour costs world-wide also induce a reduction in wages and standard living for skilled workers in developed countries; this would also avoid a development making the live of future generations at risk due to the damages produced on the environment.I documenti in SFERA sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.
