45126-Invest. Qual-No111

Investment in Qualitylong-term position in the international system, the challenge ofdeveloping a small peripheral agricultural country, the dynamics ofinternational trade and regional development and the role of the EUin creating an international system of governance. A similarperspective has been neatly encapsulated by Krugman in the idea ofIreland as a regional economy (Krugman, 1997). This perspective isexpressed in a set of propositions outlined in Chapter 1, amongwhich are:●●●●●●●The importance of specialisation in high-value, high-growth,sectors in maximising the gains from trade and integration;The damaging long-run effect of net emigration and the importanceof increasing population and employment in Ireland;That technological development can make it possible for certaincountries or regions to rapidly improve their position in theinternational economic system;The importance of competitiveness in a small open economy;The role of European integration in facilitating the developmentof a small peripheral region;The inter-dependence between the traded and non-tradedsectors, and the importance of an efficient non-traded sector;The importance of regional networking in strengthening competitiveadvantage; and● The importance of organisational capability and learning inmodern business competition and public policy.As outlined in Chapter 1, this perspective can yield a usefulinterpretation of Ireland’s economic failure through much of the19th and 20th centuries and much greater economic advance inrecent decades.In Chapter 1, it was pointed out that this interpretation differs fromtwo others that have been advanced recently. One is that Ireland’seconomic development is fatally contradictory and, the second, thatIreland’s progress is nothing remarkable, best seen as an inevitableconvergence that happened to be delayed. While each of these532