The Eastward Shift of Computer Hardware Production: How Ireland Adjusted (NIRSA) Working Paper Series. No.27

Computer and component assembly operations tend to service each of the triad markets (the Americas, Asia and EMEA – Europe, the Middle East and Africa) from locations within each triad. Over the course of the 1990s, assembly shifted to lower-cost locations within each triad region. Within the Americas, operations shifted from the US and Canada to Mexico. In Asia they shifted from Japan to Singapore and in Europe from the richer core countries to the Western EU periphery of Ireland and Scotland. Two thirds of all computers sold in Europe in the 1990s were assembled in either Ireland or Scotland. More recently the sector has been shifting again. In Asia the shift has been from Singapore to lower-cost economies such as Thailand, Malaysia and the Philippines. In Europe the shift has been from Scotland and Ireland to Central and Eastern Europe. Electronics component production, meanwhile, has also been shifting eastwards – primarily to Asia. The purpose of the present paper is to chart how Ireland adjusted as computer hardware jobs shifted abroad.