Month: April 2013

Whither Industrial Policy? The Future of Public Institutions and Economic Development

3-6 pm, Thursday April 25^th 2013
Institute of Bankers, 1 North Wall Quay, Dublin 1
Sponsored by NUI Maynooth (NIRSA/ Sociology) and UCD Geary Institute

Globalisation, regional economic clusters, open systems of innovation, financialisation, legal restrictions on state aid and a range of other factors appeared to have consigned industrial policy and the developmental state to history. However, as economies struggle to restore growth and seek models of sustainable prosperity, there is renewed interest in the role of public institutions in promoting industrial and regional development. Moreover, recent decades have seen significant experiments with new forms of ‘old’ institutions – ranging across the industrial development agencies of Israel and Taiwan, the state investment banks of Germany and Brazil and the diverse network of agencies promoting innovation in the US.

This workshop explores the new forms of industrial and innovation policy that have emerged in recent decades. It examines their distinctive features, limitations and potential and asks what futures there might be for a developmental role for public institutions. Further details below.

Chapter 3: The Dog That Didn’t Bark: Has Inflation Been Muzzled or Was It Just Sleeping?

Chapter 4: Breaking through the Frontier: Can Today’s Dynamic Low-Income Countries Make It?

interesting summary here.  (Ireland will be included in the 2013 wave.)

Most of the major retailers have introduced customer restrictions on the purchase of infant formula.  See this BBC report. The restrictions also apply in their Irish divisions.

Although the last month mightn’t testify to it, Ireland has an advantage when it comes to a key factor in the production of high-quality powdered cow’s milk – a generally mild, moist climate conducive to grass growth.

When thinking about the future one question that will always perplex is “where will the growth come from?”.  The removal of EU quota restrictions on milk production in 2015 is one potential source but 15,000 additional jobs may be overstating it.

Perhaps the Irish Dairy Board, which today announced €2 billion of sales for 2012,  would consider adding a new product to its Kerrygold range.

Nick Crafts provides his account here.