Why Arctic policies matter: The role of exogenous actions in oil and gas industry development in the Norwegian High North

Recent explanations of regional path development tend to neglect public policy interventions into the analysis of new path creation in non-core regions. I argue that the evolutionary approach in economic geography effort in highlighting endogenous theories to explain industrial renewal in the periphery, should be more aware of theories of exogenous inflows from outside in order to explain innovation and growth in regions. I suggest that the concept of local content policies in the global petroleum industry is pivotal in understanding regions ability to break out of trajectories seen as path dependent in theories of regional development. Drawing on a combination of studies of two petroleum projects in the region of Finnmark and one in Nordland in Northern Norway, this paper explores recent local content initiatives, and evaluate their potential benefit for companies and regions. I argue that the role of policy actions should be a pivotal issue in explaining growth and innovation in peripheral areas, and that a combination of endogenous and exogenous factors gives a more balanced picture of the situation rather than leaning on endogenous factors alone.