Technological Disruptions and Production Location Choices

Abstract

The last three decades have seen an acceleration of the interconnectedness of the global economy on a number of levels: economic, productive, financial, social, and cultural. Some referred to it as a turbocharged globalisation (Friedman, The Lexus and the olive tree: Understanding globalization. New York: Random House, 2000) since, not only had it been multi-faceted, but it had moved faster than any time before. The 2008 financial crisis has somewhat pushed to the fore the undesirable implications of such global linkages, especially in advanced economies where de-industrialisation, joblessness, and imbalances in the national and regional economies were reducing the responsiveness and resilience of economic systems to face external shocks. This led to the emergence of bottom-up resentment that has shaken political establishments in both the United States and Europe; consider the election of Trump in the United States, the emergence of populist parties in Europe and Brexit. A dislike for the consequences of globalisation (generally speaking in the populist narrative) has been rendered with a political discourse around `re-balancing the economy' and `job creation'. Protectionists and insular approaches to trade have surfaced with worrying consequences. The geography of the global economy is changing as new players and new dynamics are reshaping global markets and global production.