IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/taf/ijecbs/v22y2015i1p47-71.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

A Critical Reflection on Irish Industrial Policy: A Strategic Choice Approach

Author

Listed:
  • David Bailey
  • Helena Lenihan

Abstract

This paper offers a critical evaluation of recent Irish industrial policy (IP) experience. It argues that whilst Ireland managed to get some things "right" through its IP, substantial tensions arose through making foreign direct investment (FDI) attraction the centrepiece of policy, without at the same time adopting a more holistic approach in IP which inter alia also placed an emphasis on indigenous firms and entrepreneurship more generally. In particular, greater efforts should have been made much earlier in attempting to embed transnational corporation (TNC)-led activity better into the wider economy, in fostering domestic small firms and entrepreneurship, in promoting clusters, and more generally in evaluating IP more fully - notwithstanding the context which mitigated against such actions. As a result, Ireland as an economy remained vulnerable to strategic decisions made elsewhere by TNC decision makers, with IP effectively contributing to a situation that can be characterised as institutional and strategic failure. Overall, the paper suggests that wholesale emulation of the Irish IP approach is problematic.

Suggested Citation

  • David Bailey & Helena Lenihan, 2015. "A Critical Reflection on Irish Industrial Policy: A Strategic Choice Approach," International Journal of the Economics of Business, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 22(1), pages 47-71, February.
    • Handle: RePEc:taf:ijecbs:v:22:y:2015:i:1:p:47-71
    DOI: 10.1080/13571516.2014.993218
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/13571516.2014.993218
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1080/13571516.2014.993218?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Barry, Frank & Bergin, Adele, 2012. "Offshoring, Inward Investment and Export Performance in Ireland," Papers WP430, Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI).
    2. Frances Ruane & Ali Ugur, 2005. "Foreign Direct Investment And Host Country Wages: New Evidence From Irish Plant Level Panel Data," The Institute for International Integration Studies Discussion Paper Series iiisdp029, IIIS.
    3. Frank Barry & Adele Bergin, 2010. "Ireland’s Inward FDI over the Recession and Beyond," The Institute for International Integration Studies Discussion Paper Series iiisdp321, IIIS.
    4. Frances Ruane & Ali Ugur, 2005. "Export Platform FDI and Dualistic Development," The Institute for International Integration Studies Discussion Paper Series iiisdp028, IIIS.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Tiago Couto Porto & Keun Lee & Sunil Mani, 2021. "The US–Ireland–India in the catch-up cycles in IT services: MNCs, indigenous capabilities and the roles of macroeconomic variables," Eurasian Business Review, Springer;Eurasia Business and Economics Society, vol. 11(1), pages 59-82, March.
    2. Lenihan, Helena & Mulligan, Kevin & Doran, Justin & Rammer, Christian & Ipinnaiye, Olubunmi, 2022. "R&D grant and tax credit support for foreign-owned subsidiaries: Does it pay off?," ZEW Discussion Papers 22-003, ZEW - Leibniz Centre for European Economic Research.
    3. Olubunmi Ipinnaiye & Declan Dineen & Helena Lenihan, 2016. "Analysing the Drivers of Services Firm Performance: Evidence for Ireland," The Economic and Social Review, Economic and Social Studies, vol. 47(2), pages 213-245.
    4. Helena Lenihan & Kevin Mulligan & Justin Doran & Christian Rammer & Olubunmi Ipinnaiye, 2024. "R&D grants and R&D tax credits to foreign-owned subsidiaries: Does supporting multinational enterprises’ R&D pay off in terms of firm performance improvements for the host economy?," The Journal of Technology Transfer, Springer, vol. 49(2), pages 740-781, April.
    5. Yu Hsing, 2016. "Is Real Depreciation Expansionary? The Case of Ireland," Bulletin of Applied Economics, Risk Market Journals, vol. 3(1), pages 1-9.
    6. Simona Iammarino, 2018. "FDI and regional development policy," Journal of International Business Policy, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 1(3), pages 157-183, December.
    7. Olubunmi Ipinnaiye & Declan Dineen & Helena Lenihan, 2017. "Drivers of SME performance: a holistic and multivariate approach," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 48(4), pages 883-911, April.
    8. David Bailey & Helena Lenihan & Alex De Ruyter, 2016. "A cautionary tale of two ‘tigers’: Industrial policy ‘lessons’ from Ireland and Hungary?," Local Economy, London South Bank University, vol. 31(8), pages 873-891, December.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. David Bailey & Helena Lenihan & Ajit Singh, 2009. "Lessons for African Economies from Irish and East Asian Industrial Policy," Journal of Industry, Competition and Trade, Springer, vol. 9(4), pages 357-382, December.
    2. Anguelov Nikolay, 2014. "Does the Presence of Multinational Corporations Affect a Country’s Gross Domestic Product?," Global Economy Journal, De Gruyter, vol. 14(1), pages 11-30, June.
    3. Fangjin Ye, 2020. "The impact of bilateral investment treaties (BITs) on collective labor rights in developing countries," The Review of International Organizations, Springer, vol. 15(4), pages 899-921, October.
    4. Yakob, Ramsin & Nakamura, H. Richard & Ström, Patrik, 2018. "Chinese foreign acquisitions aimed for strategic asset-creation and innovation upgrading: The case of Geely and Volvo Cars," Technovation, Elsevier, vol. 70, pages 59-72.
    5. Barry, Frank & Bergin, Adele, 2012. "Offshoring, Inward Investment and Export Performance in Ireland," Papers WP430, Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI).
    6. Nguyen-Huu, Thanh Tam & Nguyen-Khac, Minh, 2017. "Impacts of Export-platform FDI on the production of upstream industries - do third country size, trade agreements and local content requirement matter? Evidence from the Vietnamese supporting industri," Economics - The Open-Access, Open-Assessment E-Journal (2007-2020), Kiel Institute for the World Economy (IfW Kiel), vol. 11, pages 1-33.
    7. David Bailey & Helena Lenihan & Ajit Singh, 2008. "Tiger, Tiger, Burning Bright? Industrial Policy Lessons from Ireland and East Asia for Small African Economies," Working Papers wp374, Centre for Business Research, University of Cambridge.
    8. Nguyen-Huu, Thanh Tam & Nguyen-Khac, Minh, 2017. "Impacts of export-platform FDI on backward linkages - Do third country size, trade agreements and heterogeneity of firms matter? Evidence from the Vietnamese supporting industries," Economics Discussion Papers 2017-21, Kiel Institute for the World Economy (IfW Kiel).
    9. Bergin, Adele & Duffy, David & Foley, Daniel & Garcia Rodriguez, Abian & Lawless, Martina & Mc Inerney, Niall & McQuinn, Kieran, 2016. "Ireland’s Economic Outlook: Perspectives and Policy Challenges," Forecasting Report, Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI), number EO1 edited by Bergin, Adele & Morgenroth, Edgar & McQuinn, Kieran.
    10. Farkas, Beáta, 2013. "Changing development prospects for the Central and Eastern European EU member states," MPRA Paper 48172, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    11. Lawless, Martina & Morgenroth, Edgar, 2016. "Opportunities and Risks for Foreign Direct Investment," Book Chapters, in: Ireland’s Economic Outlook: Perspectives and Policy Challenges, Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI).
    12. Thanh Tam Nguyen-Huu & Malika Hattab-Christmann & Med Kechidi, 2010. "Les Effets Des Investissements Directs Étrangers De Plateforme D'Exportation Sur Les Industries Locales Au Vietnam : Effet De Concurrence Et Retombées Technologiques," Post-Print hal-04248282, HAL.
    13. Agnew, Kerri & Lyons, Ronan C., 2018. "The impact of employment on housing prices: Detailed evidence from FDI in Ireland," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 70(C), pages 174-189.
    14. Ergun Dogan & Koi Wong & Michael Yap, 2013. "Turnover, ownership and productivity in Malaysian manufacturing," Journal of the Asia Pacific Economy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 18(1), pages 26-50.
    15. Duffy, David & Foley, Daniel & Mc Inerney, Niall & McQuinn, Kieran, 2016. "Demographic Change, Long-Run Housing Demand and the Related Challenges for the Irish Banking Sector," Book Chapters, in: Ireland’s Economic Outlook: Perspectives and Policy Challenges, Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI).
    16. Bergin, Adele & Garcia Rodriguez, Abian & Mc Inerney, Niall & Morgenroth, Edgar, 2016. "Baseline: Methodology, Assumptions and Projections," Book Chapters, in: Ireland’s Economic Outlook: Perspectives and Policy Challenges, Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI).
    17. David Bailey & Helena Lenihan & Alex De Ruyter, 2016. "A cautionary tale of two ‘tigers’: Industrial policy ‘lessons’ from Ireland and Hungary?," Local Economy, London South Bank University, vol. 31(8), pages 873-891, December.
    18. Beáta Farkas & Michael Landesmann & Leon Podkaminer, 2013. "Monthly Report No. 1/2013," wiiw Monthly Reports 2013-01, The Vienna Institute for International Economic Studies, wiiw.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:taf:ijecbs:v:22:y:2015:i:1:p:47-71. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Chris Longhurst (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.tandfonline.com/CIJB20 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.