The New EU Industrial Policy and Deepening Structural Asymmetries

Smart Specialisation Not So Smart

Bibliographic Data

ID6281337
AuthorsAngela Wigger (0000-0002-2617-8064, Radboud University Nijmegen, corresponding author)
Year2023
Volume61
Issue1
Pages20-37
Publication date2023-01-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueJCMS Journal of Common Market Studies (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0021-9886 • E-ISSN: 1468-5965
PublisherWiley (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1111/jcms.13366
OpenAlexW4283164237
LanguageEN
Citations received31
References cited31

In response to the 2008 financial crisis and rising competitive pressures from emerging markets, EU industrial policy has made a major comeback. One of the flagship policies is Smart Specialisation, which is located at the intersection of industrial and cohesion policy, and which serves the twin purpose of catalysing the transition of manufacturing sectors to innovative Industry 4.0‐type technologies, as well as inducing social and territorial cohesion and upward economic convergence. Employing a critical political economy perspective that accounts for the interplay between state regulation and capitalism's general dynamic of uneven and combined development, the article argues that Smart Specialisation is unlikely to lead to the proclaimed and much‐needed economic intra‐EU convergence. Although individual Smart Specialisation projects undoubtedly can lead to a technological upgrading, narrowing the gap between advanced high‐tech regions and rapidly de‐industrializing regions, or regions locked into labour‐intensive, low value‐added and less knowledge‐intensive production, remains a pipedream

Business · Cohesion (chemistry · Convergence (economics · Economic geography · Economic growth · Economic system · Economics · Industrial organization · Industrial policy · Market economy · Political science · Politics · Labor Market and Education · Regional Development and Policy · University-Industry-Government Innovation Models

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