Industrial reshoring: Which countries have managed to retain their industry?

Many OECD countries want to reshore their industry after the COVID crisis. But for how many of them is this really feasible? To find out, we look at the characteristics of OECD countries that have retained a large-scale industry. We examine the link between the size of industry and: Labour force skills; Industrial automation; Corporate R&D; Labour costs; Corporate taxes (in particular social contributions and production taxes); The national savings rate. We find a significant link between the size of industry and skills, automation, R&D, corporate taxes (in particular production taxes) and the savings rate. To receive industrial reshoring, OECD countries therefore probably need to improve skills, modernise industry, innovate more, reduce production taxes and lift the savings rate if it is too low. A large industry is associated with high wages in industry, which probably stems from skills and product sophistication.