ABSTRACT
The importance of flexibility applies to workers as well as to managers. European workers have long been noted as tradition-bound and resistant to geographical mobility. Sweden's active labor market policy appears to deal with the issues directly. An impressive program to subsidize geographic mobility exists there. Regional development programs exist in each country, but they all face a common dilemma: the existence of depressed areas attesting to their loss or lack of attractiveness to industry. Efforts to develop new industry or to encourage the expansion of existing industry in such regions require measures to counteract the perception of industrial unattractiveness. France is probably at the more-active-role-for-government end of the continuum, with a well-developed set of industrial policies. In two cases, Sweden and the Federal Republic of Germany, substantial government-imposed inhibitions to the export of military equipment exist, essentially ruling out expanded military exports as an adjustment path.
