Abstract
Pervasive new technologies associated with information and communication technologies and software are dominated by a restricted oligopoly of US-based corporations. The challengers are no longer European firms, but rather Japanese or Chinese companies. The actions taken by the EU to fill this technology gap, including the Framework Programmes for research and technological development, are beneficial but still insufficient in terms of the resources committed. This article argues that the EU urgently needs to add another economic policy instrument to defy these incumbent firms, namely to create a few publicly supported large corporations in the areas of greater scientific and technological opportunities. This will be complementary to the already ongoing mission-oriented innovation policies. While there are the political and economic difficulties of implementing such a strategy, one recalls the pioneering venture of Airbus, established more than 50 years ago that has successfully managed to challenge the dominant US-based passenger aircraft producers despite several economic and political controversies. Could similar attempts be replicated for green technologies, healthcare services and artificial intelligence?
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Preliminary versions of this paper were presented at the webinars organised by the Birkbeck College’s Centre for Innovation Management Research, University of London, 20 May 2020 and at the Forum “The New European Industrial Strategy after The Great Financial Crisis and the Covid Crisis”, 4 February 2021. We wish to thank the participants and Andrea Filippetti, Andrea Guido, Margarita Estevez-Abe and Carlo Milana, for their comments. Grants from the School of Business, Economics and Informatics of Birkbeck, University of London, and the financial support of PRIN (Projects of National Interests promoted by the Italian Ministry for University and Research) Innovation and Global Challenges Prot. 20177J2LS9 are gratefully acknowledged. Usual disclaimers apply.
Daniele Archibugi, IRPPS — Italian National Research Council, Rome, Italy; and Birkbeck, University of London, UK.
Vitantonio Mariella, IRPPS — Italian National Research Council, Rome, Italy.
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Open Access: This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
Open Access funding provided by ZBW — Leibniz Information Centre for Economics.
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Archibugi, D., Mariella, V. Is a European Recovery Possible Without High-Tech Public Corporations?. Intereconomics 56, 160–166 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10272-021-0973-x
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10272-021-0973-x