Production networks and EU enlargement: is there room for everyone in the automotive industry?

• Autores: Leticia Blázquez Gómez, Carmen Díaz Mora, Rosario Gandoy Juste
• Localización: Notas técnicas: [continuación de Documentos de Trabajo FUNCAS], ISSN-e 1988-8767, Nº. 612, 2011
• Idioma: inglés
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• Dialnet Métricas: 3 Citas
• Resumen

  • The aim of this paper is to analyse the changes that have taken place in European production networks since the mid-nineties, when, simultaneously, a new impetus to the EU process and its enlargement occurred. Due to its characteristics, the automotive industry is particularly suitable for our analysis. Descriptive analysis suggests that advances in the European integration process have led to a spatial extension of the networks to the East rather than to a replacement of traditional locations. This finding is supported by our econometric analysis that, estimating an extended gravity panel data model, shows that, besides EU membership and comparative advantages, variables such as good quality infrastructure, a minimum threshold of development, a headquarter effect as well as other unobserved country characteristics are key determining factors to be integrated in cross-border production networks. Moreover, these results open the door to the implementation of regional and industrial policies in order to strengthen these European production networks.