Small States in Global Markets

The Irish foreign direct investment (FDI) growth model has attracted attention from around the globe. While a significant amount of attention has been focused on how tax strategies and industrial policy have helped attract FDI to Ireland, fewer have examined the domestic political economy that supports the model. In this chapter, we examine the spatial and sector nature of FDI in Ireland and find that it concentrates heavily in a small number of sectors and locations. Collectively, we argue that this concentration, pressure on the Irish tax regime, and changing global macroeconomic conditions may shake the political economy of the Irish FDI growth model and render it unsustainable in the long run.