Délocalisations : simple affaire de concurrence ou problème de politique économique ?

According to the standard perspective, relocation does not create any problem when full competition prevails in product, labour, and capital markets. Changes costs generate changes in location by firms in manufacturing industry at the benefit of less developed countries. In more developed countries, jobs are shifting from e.g. manufacturing to services industry, and the negative impact on households' purchasing power of lower nominal wages will be more than offset by lower prices of imported final goods. Unemployment will be temporary, unless market labour rigidities prevent the necessary jobs' shifting. According to an evolutionary perspective, relocation is an aspect of a process of creative destruction that results in real distortions and hence in market disequilibria. Therefore, even in a competitive environment, relocation may be associated with an increasing rate of unemployment and make it necessary for public authorities to combine structural and macroeconomic policies, the former being efficient only if the latter are growth oriented.