Regional Aspects of Environmental Regulation: The Case of the Irish Pharmaceutical Sector

Abstract

This chapter develops a broader than conventional understanding of regional policy that takes into consideration the functionally and sectorally specific effects of local institutions and policies. It does this through an examination of the regional impact of Irish environmental protection regulation. In particular we focus on the effects of Cork County Council's regulation of the pharmaceutical sector. In the first section we discuss regional policy in theory and practice, and show how it is best defined in terms of an evolutionary system. This is followed by an analysis of the interaction between region-specific regulatory stringency and firms' capacity to respond to radical changes in the regulatory environment. Our conclusion is that the Cork regional system's impact on local firms - in terms of their ability to respond to the new, more stringent national environmental regulations - was generally positive.