PhD defense Robin Philips: Regional patterns of industrialisation in the Low Countries

Whereas the Industrial Revolution and the subsequent phases of industrial development have often been studied in the Netherlands and Belgium, less is known about the regional patterns in both countries. In his dissertation Robin Philips offers a first systematical, evolutionary perspective on the change in the location of industry in the Low Countries during the nineteenth century until present. Drawing on evidence from recently-digitized industry and population censuses and previously undigitized archival sources.

Philips investigated how and why the location of industry changed through four consecutive periods of rapid technological change in the last two centuries. Starting with the decline of proto-industry during the first Industrial Revolution, the shift from the first to the second Industrial Revolution, relocations during the long twentieth century and the disappearance of manufacturing jobs during the last decennia. 

How to maintain existing activities

During each of these episodes, we find a changing importance in the determinants for the location of industry – related to regional differences in factor endowments, market potential, and institutions –, each time altering the industrial landscape in the Netherlands and Belgium. Yet, Philips also finds evidence for an important role of path dependency: whereas often studies looked exclusively at how regions can attract new industries, this study also looks at how regions can better maintain existing activities. Furthermore, the study highlights how existing economic structures can strengthen or weaken the attractiveness of a region for new industries, and alter the capabilities for a region to become economically resilient or vulnerable in the long-run.
 
Parts of the thesis, taking a more international perspective on regional industrialization, are forthcoming in an edited volume published by Routledge, co-authored by Bas van Leeuwen (IISG) and Erik Buyst (KU Leuven). In mid-2021, a revised version of the manuscript will be published by Palgrave Macmillan.