CEU Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2017
| Author | Izsak, Daniel |
|---|---|
| Title | Varieties of Regionalisation: The Impact of Regionalism on Regionalisation of the Car Industry in the EU and NAFTA |
| Summary | States race to regionalise in the hope of future economic gains, Brexit and the crisis of NAFTA notwithstanding. Their move rests on two notions: first, that regionalism (the formal process of integration by states) leads to regionalisation (the actual process of economic integration); and second, that, from simple free-trade agreements to the EU’s complex arrangements, more regionalism leads to more, or qualitatively different regionalisation. Setting off from the puzzling phenomenon that change in intra-regional trade levels does not always correspond to regionalism’s regulatory incentives, this thesis takes issue with integration concepts which attribute regionalisation outcomes to regionalism alone or exaggerate its role. It is hypothesised that firms could respond to other influences that shape their cross-border activities, regionalisation could be globalisation in regional disguise, and consequently, regionalisation may not even follow regionalism in its intensity. Thus, this research explores how regionalism impacts regionalisation and whether a more intensive, deep, highly-institutionalised regionalism (EU) leads to substantially different regionalisation outcomes than a less intensive, shallow, thinly-institutionalised integration (NAFTA). This inquiry moves beyond a unidimensional focus on institutions and equally considers interests, ideas, and institutions to account for regionalism (negative, positive integration measures, and ideational factors) and non-regionalism related factors (e.g. firm or business logic, national politics, and structural factors) that shape varied regionalisation outcomes in the EU and NAFTA. It examines regionalisation processes by taking car manufacturing firms (OEMs) as its units of analysis and the car industry as its universe of cases, which is argued to be particularly well-suited to show the current extent of regionalism’s impact. Changes are traced on three major aspects of regionalisation from the 1950s to today: where the product is made (spatial and organisational changes in manufacturing); how the product is marketed (changes in design, sales, advertisement, etc.); and the emergence of regional products (changes of technical aspects, safety- and emission standards; vehicle-type approvals). This thesis argues that the intensity of regionalisation is not always directly proportional to the type or intensity of regionalism; instead it is linked to the interplay of regionalism and non-regionalism factors, on the one hand, and the specific aspect of regionalisation where the impact takes place (e.g. production, marketing, product), on the other. This is because regionalisation is always context-dependent and regionalism rarely exerts influence over it on its own. It has varied effects on different firms, and different firm activities (and likely has a different impact on different industries although this is beyond the scope of this project). Non-regionalism factors at times can constrain the strong impact of regionalism, or render it altogether irrelevant, while at others, they can amplify it. The thesis also argues that regionalisation processes are firmly regionally embedded (at least, in the car industry and producer-driven chains). It is also contended that, despite signs of increasing global exposure since the Great Recession, globalisation in this industry is regionally rooted and thus better construed as ‘concurrent regionalisations’. Beyond conceptualising the link between regionalism and regionalisation and raising several theoretical questions about the role of structure in regionalism, the thesis also makes empirical and methodological contributions. It offers original datasets: e.g. a rerun of Rugman’s 2001 global-/regional-dependence analysis to trace changes; and historical series of car manufacturers’ market shares, both country- and region-levels. The thesis also takes a novel approach to comparing diverse regionalisms: it proposes a dynamic frame composed of variation and similarity drivers (institutional, structural, and ideational indicators) impacting regionalisation in varied ways, which can be applied for further comparative studies. |
| Supervisor | Fetzer, Thomas |
| Department | International Relations PhD |
| Full text | https://www.etd.ceu.edu/2017/izsak_daniel.pdf |
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