Devolution, disinvestment and uneven development: US industrial policy and evolution of the national network for manufacturing innovation

Abstract

In the absence of a formal industrial policy, the USA supports manufacturing industries indirectly, and with minimal coordination. The resulting system constitutes a de facto industrial policy, whose contours and mechanisms are infrequently scrutinised. In this article we analyse a rare, recent federal effort to consciously design and implement the National Network for Manufacturing Innovation (NNMI). We analyse to what extent regional Manufacturing Innovation Institutes (MIIs), seeded through the NNMI programme, build new industrial specialisations in the communities where they operate, and, alternately, to what extent MIIs enhance and extend existing specialisations by providing access to emerging and enabling technologies.