The factors responsible for the spatial reorganization of contemporary manufacturing are presented here and the predictive power of long-standing notions of comparative advantage revisited. While a growing number of commercial tasks and technologies are in principle mobile internationally, giving rise to the perception of evermore footloose manufacturing firms and greater job insecurity, there is much in the modern organization of manufacturing that is both viscid and involves location-specific competitive advantages. This calls for a more nuanced assessment of the impact of an open world trading system on the spatial division of labor and on living standards.
Since the onset of the global financial crisis in 2007 governments have resorted to beggar-thy-neighbour measures. Conforming to previous historical bouts of protectionism the form of discrimination against cross-border discrimination changed. As well as documenting government attempts to tilt the playing field towards domestic firms, this paper discusses the causes and apparent constraints on contemporary protectionism and concludes with a discussion of steps that can be taken to maintain the wide variety of cross-border commercial flows seen in the twenty-first century.
