Blog
Peter Marsh - A New Industrial Revolution
21st November 2012
Peter Marsh's talk at our Global economy conference in London on Monday challenged us to think in fresh terms about what manufacturing is and the opportunities for British businesses to make successful headway in premium and precision manufactured products in a fast-changing global environment. Here are the slides from his presentation. The FT special reprot - Making the Future is well worth tapping into - here is the link. We have also linked to some of his recent video pieces for the Financial Times
Tutor2u Global Economy - Peter Marsh on a New Industrial Revolution from Geoff Riley
Peter Marsh - revision notes
- Four industrial revolutions: steam, transport, science, microchip
- 10bn unique products produced annually globally; 15-20% of global GDP; 5% of employment
- In Britain: quantity of manufacturing has risen faster than GDP (by volume, index year 1800); value has fallen
o 1800: Britain produced 4.3% world output; 5th largest manufacturing country
o 1900: produced 15% of world output, largest manufacturer
o 2011: 2.3% of world output, 9th largest (out of 197)
- Since 1900, the share of manufacturing done by poor countries has been rising
- China overtook the US as largest manufacturing economy last year; however, past discontinuities show we should be cautious about simply extrapolating trends to predict future outcomes.
- New industrial revolution:
o Customised manufacturing – move away from large scale manufacturing now new technologies (e.g. 3D printing) have made customisation viable
o Niche approach – facilitated by internet
o Global manufacturing pathways – conduits for ideas, global EOS
o Environmental responsiveness – competitive advantage gained through environmental awareness/responsibility
o China opening up – continuing process esp. since 2001 (joined WTO)
- Cluster dynamics: importance of location – external EOS
o Intellectual clusters: sharing of ideas
o e.g. Bristol – semiconductor design firms
- Government policy
o Increase investment in stronger areas
o Recognise importance of manufacturing: deindustrialisation exaggerated by decreased value of manufactured goods relative to services and increased compactness (cf. Chang)
Geoff Riley
Geoff Riley FRSA has been teaching Economics for over thirty years. He has over twenty years experience as Head of Economics at leading schools. He writes extensively and is a contributor and presenter on CPD conferences in the UK and overseas.