Cluster Engineering & Tooling: from the importance in the Centro Region to its insertion in the global value chain

Abstract

This work focuses on the Engineering & Tooling (E&T) cluster, presenting three complementary analyses: (i) geographic concentration and assessment of its economic importance, from a regional and national point of view, supported by turnover-based location quotients and by shift-share analysis, to understand employment evolution; (ii) intersectoral interdependencies, analysing the evolution of National Accounts’ indicators; and (iii) the integration of the cluster in international trade and global value chains’ context, through multi-regional Input-Output analysis, based on the World Input-Output Database.

Results allow concluding that E&T has a special relevance in the Centro Region, but also in the national economy and in international integration context, due to the region's high specialization (with particular relevance of NUTS-III Regions of Leiria and Aveiro) and the differential or regional component, which was responsible by a regional increase in employment in these sectors, more significant than in the rest of the country. At the national level, the sectors associated with the cluster demonstrated resilience and capacity for slight growth (also based on exports), even in a particularly adverse context for the economy. International trade also proved to be a determining factor for the evolution of the cluster, revealing the existence of internal and external dependencies.