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Deglobalization, Reconfiguration, or Business as Usual? COVID-19 and the limits of reshoring of globalized production
[working paper]
Corporate Editor
Weizenbaum Institute for the Networked Society - The German Internet Institute
Abstract The COVID-19 pandemic has seemingly reinforced the need for geographic restructuring and a rehoring of production, as it has demonstrated the vulnerability of globalized production. This article provides an assessment of the impact of COVID-19 on the geographies of production, looking particularly a... view more
The COVID-19 pandemic has seemingly reinforced the need for geographic restructuring and a rehoring of production, as it has demonstrated the vulnerability of globalized production. This article provides an assessment of the impact of COVID-19 on the geographies of production, looking particularly at developments in the automotive, electronics, and clothing industries. Criticizing overly simplified prospects for deglobalization, we argue that the COVID-19 pandemic cannot be interpreted as a trigger for a general retreat from global manufacturing but rather as an event that is reinforcing long-standing shifts toward more multipolar production and consumption. While the issue of global production network resilience has attracted great attention in corporate strategies and industrial policies, re- or nearshoring of production networks is only one of several strategies and it has hardly been implemented so far. Ongoing disruptions and, above all, geoeconomically/-politically and environmentally motivated policies could well lead to a shift in investment and sourcing patterns. Political efforts in this direction are, however, limited by pre-existing global economic development paths and the balance of power associated with them.... view less
Keywords
vulnerability; industrial production; Great Depression; digitalization; globalization; industrial policy; trade policy; structural change
Classification
National Economy
Manufacturing
Economic Policy
Free Keywords
COVID-19; Corona pandemic
Document language
English
Publication Year
2022
City
Berlin
Page/Pages
30 p.
Series
Weizenbaum Series, 30
ISSN
2748-5587
Status
Preprint; reviewed
Licence
Creative Commons - Attribution 4.0
FundingThis work has been funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research of Germany (BMBF) (grant no.: 16DII121, 16DII122, 16DII123, 16DII124, 16DII125, 16DII126, 16DII127, 16DII128 - "Deutsches Internet-Institut") and the Federal Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs of Germany (BMAS)