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Economic globalization in the 21st century has been characterized by the rise and spread of global value chains (GVCs). It faces significant challenges due to increasing domestic and international policy uncertainty in the context of emerging mega risks like geopolitical tensions and climate change. This paper begins by constructing a theoretical model for an open economy to study how risk‐averse firms make decisions regarding the sourcing of intermediate inputs in an uncertain environment. Our model solution proposes that firms will source fewer intermediate inputs from countries with more economic uncertainty. An increase in domestic and foreign uncertainty will have opposite impacts on a country's position in GVCs. In this sense, we argue that a country tends to move downstream along GVCs if its own economic policies become more uncertain, and it tends to move upstream with an increase in the uncertainty of its trading partner countries. Our regression analyses, based on data including the World Input–Output Database, World Development Indicators, the UN Comtrade database, and the Economic Policy Uncertainty Index, provide empirical support for this model‐based conclusion. Our findings highlight that a nation must consider foreign economic policy uncertainty and maintain domestic policy stability to participate in GVCs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite the well‐established tradeoff between economic development and environmental protection, research on the economic costs of alleviating pollution, especially from the perspective of global value chain upgradation, is scarce. In 2006, in its Eleventh Five‐Year Plan, the Chinese government implemented strict environmental regulations against air pollution. We examine the causal effect of these environmental regulations – which were stricter for higher pollution emission provinces compared with lower pollution emission provinces – on Chinese firms' span of production stages after the policy shock. A difference‐in‐difference‐in‐differences estimation reveals that, first, environmental regulations have a significantly negative effect on firms' span of production stages that robustness checks corroborate; second, the negative effects of environmental regulations on firms' span of production stages are realised through the simultaneous decline in import upstreamness and increase in export upstreamness. Heterogeneity tests indicate that the effects are more significant for firms in eastern China, and foreign‐owned firms; finally, the negative effects are manifested through the emission‐related input and output, productivity, and innovation mechanisms. Meanwhile, there are significant emission reduction effects. These results have implications on environmental policies in developing countries in terms of reiterating the need to achieve the dual objectives of environmental protection and global value chain upgradation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Global value chains (GVCs) promote the diffusion of knowledge and technology. This paper develops an empirical production model that combines spillovers and productivity growth heterogeneity at the industry‐level. We exploit the GVCs linkages from inter‐country input–output tables to describe the interdependencies of technology within the input–output space and combine that with the Asian‐Pacific and US KLEMS database to estimate productivity growth. The spillover effects from capital deepening, intermediate deepening, and technical change are identified and decomposed into domestic and international effects. Our empirical results find that ignoring the industrial interactions leads to an overestimation of China's productivity growth, and underestimation for the US and Japan. The spillovers of capital and intermediate are found to be significantly positive. The spillovers of technical change received account for 32 to 40 percent of total productivity growth. These findings provide a better understanding of how technical changes are distributed and diffused within GVCs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article presents a comprehensive framework for assessing the influence of input variation during the period of stagnant expansion of the global value chain (GVC) by incorporating input elasticity. Each import sector is treated as a complete input demand system with a stochastic preference for input in the framework of Ghosh Inverse, and the input elasticity is employed to quantify the input variation based on the Quadratic Almost Ideal Demand System (QUAIDS) model. New empirical evidence covering three major regional value chains (RVCs) and the time span from 2010 to 2020 reveals that increasing input elasticity leads to additional output for most countries, except those within the North American RVC. Additionally, this article also discusses how external determinants have diverse extents influence to input elasticity, while the substitution effect among homogenous input in the specific input demand system may decide their input's competitiveness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Firms in developing countries can learn advanced technology and management know‐how through foreign direct investment (FDI). The extent (or the lack) of transmission of technology and knowledge depends on the structure of production networks. In the automotive industry, networks consist of vehicle assemblers and their layers of parts suppliers. We used the South African automotive industry as a case study to examine how the behaviour of assemblers and parts suppliers is linked. Based on statistical analysis using the original firm‐level data, we found that the first‐tier suppliers significantly increased their production with the regional expansion of automotive production. However, such growth linkages were not observed among lower‐tier suppliers. Further, we obtained the suggestive evidence that only multinational (and not local) first‐tier firms improved their production efficiency, indicating the importance of production networks among multinationals in transmitting technology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Global trade in environmental goods (EGs) has provided a new vision for international cooperation in response to sustainable development goals (SDGs). However, there are ongoing debates over whether developing countries can achieve sustainability during their trade participation. This study proposes a conceptual framework to observe countries' current trade status and potential for benefit from global EG trade. By tracing the changing status of 142 countries in the conceptual framework during 2001–2019, this study finds that global EG trade reduces inequality among developed countries while it increases inequality among developing countries. Some emerging market countries may enhance their status in the global trade network, but their upgrading within the global value chain remains slow. The current poor EG trade state and limited benefit potential of most developing countries will have a non‐significant impact in terms of achieving the SDGs. The study suggests that regional trade will give developing countries a better chance to integrate into trade markets and support them toward achieving the SDGs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We study the geographic concentration of trade flows of African countries using information on the global input–output structure of trade from the Eora database. Most countries show a similar concentration between close‐by versus long‐distance trade in their foreign input sourcing as in their export sales. However, changes over the last two decades indicate that many countries increasingly focus their long‐distance trade on only one of these two dimensions. This trend is most pronounced in manufacturing industries with stronger global value chains. In line with the learning‐by‐exporting hypothesis, export success on distant markets is a leading predictor (Granger causes) of regional export success. Only in light manufacturing do we find some evidence of a reverse pattern, that is, regional exports preceding global exports. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyzes the effects of Non‐Tariff Measures (NTMs) on exports while considering the degree of participation in the global value chains (GVCs). Standard‐like non‐tariff measures, such as Sanitary and Phytosanitary Standards (SPS) and Technical Barriers to Trade (TBT), have influenced trade by increasing trade costs or improving consumers' awareness. Theoretically, NTMs can have either positive or negative effects on trade flows. In this study the characteristics of the production process are considered in order to disentangle the arguments of 'standards as barriers' and 'standards as catalyst'. Due to the expansion of GVCs, NTMs have accumulated along production processes. Cumulative NTMs along the GVCs affect not only the direct trade sector and its partners, but also other relevant sectors and countries indirectly through the production chains. We use panel data on product‐level ASEAN exports for 2007–2019 to estimate the effects of NTMs depending on GVC participation. The estimated results show that the impact of SPS and TBT is heterogeneous according to the degree of GVC participation. While SPS and TBT regulations have been found to promote trade, their positive effects are less significant for industries involved in forward and upstream GVC participation. This reflects the characteristics of these sectors, which require higher levels of technology and skilled labour compared to backward GVC participation and downstream sectors. As a result, ASEAN exporters heavily involved in forward and upstream GVCs face increased production costs to comply with the requirements of the standard‐like NTMs. The increased production costs limit the trade‐promoting effects of the standard‐like NTMs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper tackles the broader question of why inequality along global value chains (GVCs) tends to remain unchallenged despite the successful upgrading and insertion of firms operating in the world‐system's periphery. Because the reduction and reproduction of inequalities are both intimately connected to power relations along GVCs, such relations are at the core of my analysis. Conceptually, my theorization of power builds on recent work by Dallas, Ponte and Sturgeon, which has sought to more systematically theorize and account for the multidimensional nature of power, and complements it with key insights drawn from World‐Systems theory. Empirically, this paper analyses the biodiesel GVC between Argentina and the European Union, a case in which the successful economic upgrading and enhanced competitiveness of biodiesel producers in Argentina fail to overturn their subordinated position vis‐à‐vis European producers and traders. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research asks: To what extent has America's reliance on the global supply network aggravated the country's public health and economic crisis; and how did the American government respond to supply chain weaknesses during the early years of the Covid‐19 pandemic? This study first assesses important conceptual considerations that explain the expansion of global value chains and the growth of trade interdependencies among nations. Next, an analytical case study observes (1) America's supply chain vulnerability through three major waves of infection, (2) the difficulty to mend weaknesses in the supply linkages once the novel coronavirus spread globally and (3) American government's failures to both anticipate and respond to supply shortages, especially in the health sector. Trump administration's policies failed to ensure a reliable supply of simple personal protective equipment (PPE) for healthcare professionals and hospitals throughout the first three waves of infection. Moreover, state and federal governments' substantial reliance on large manufacturers who have established procurement relationship with government led to continuous nationwide supply shortages throughout 2020. The federal government's inability to engage small and medium manufacturers in the production of critical supplies of PPE and diagnostic tests deepened and prolonged the devastating impacts of the pandemic. Our case study demonstrates that the American government needs to rethink the country's substantial reliance on the global supply chain, and the specific requirements to boost domestic manufacturing capacity. The revitalisation of America's manufacturing ability and the local supply networks will boost the productive power of the nation, strengthen resiliency, reduce vulnerability in disruptive times and prepare the nation for future crises. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The CPTPP, or the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans‐Pacific Partnership, is an example of a 'mega‐regional' free trade agreement, whose provisions on the rules of origin and trade facilitation can potentially have large impacts on CPTPP‐wide supply chains. In this paper, we analyse how intensively the CPTPP members participate in the global value chain (GVC), whether they have stronger linkages with members than with non‐members, the position of the members in the global and regional network, and whether the CPTPP members are key upstream and downstream trade partners to each other. We develop formulas of GVC position, and importance of bilateral upstream and downstream partners, based on the gross‐export decomposition framework of Koopman et al. (2014, American Economic Review, 104, 459) and Borin and Mancini (2017). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The growth in the number of emerging market firms with a global presence highlights the need to better understand how suppliers influence the governance in global value chains (GVCs). However, existing frameworks do not sufficiently elaborate this phenomenon's standing at firm level. Using a multi‐case study of six suppliers in China, this research explains how suppliers can reshape the governance structure with capability development, and thus change the power balance in GVCs. This study highlights governance changes from a supplier‐centric perspective: external governance with decentralized control and internal governance with control integration. More specifically, through the underlying mechanism from a value‐based perspective, suppliers can take greater control of specific value chain activities and move from being a value creator to becoming a value innovator. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While packaging is praised for reducing waste of perishable food products, packaging waste is a growing concern. Its least recyclable type, plastics waste, is increasingly polluting the marine environment and many developing countries are now refusing to take the waste from developed countries. Before responsibility can be established, one has to identify the key producers and consumers. This paper adjusts the packaging waste satellite account in EXIOBASE 3 by combining the official waste data published by the World Bank. Based on input–output methods, we find that the world's top suppliers of plastic packaging waste are the United States, China, and Brazil. Food and beverage products constitute the bulk of the problem. Yet, 21% of these countries' plastic packaging waste is induced export. At the global level, it is 25.8%. About 76.0% of export‐induced plastic packaging waste corresponds to packaging of the exported goods that will ultimately be disposed of in the destination country; while the others correspond to the packaging used in their supply‐chain and wasted domestically. We conclude that international efforts need to assign shared responsibility and promote improvement in plastic packaging recyclability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We investigate the role of community organizing in connecting business activities and biodiversity conservation. We draw from a unique setting in the Brazilian Amazônia Legal (Legal Amazon)—the traditional community of quebradeiras de coco do babaçu (babassu nut breaking women), or quebradeiras—to show how this community connects the subsistence activity of breaking babassu palm tree nuts with local and global value chains (GVCs) in the cosmetics industry. As a consequence of multidimensional community organizing and local/global business connections, we show not only the ways in which biodiversity conservation has been realized in a large area of the Amazon but also how the quebradeiras have developed organizational activities that address persistent social, economic, and environmental challenges. Through community organizing, the quebradeiras maintain a traditional activity, connect with GVCs, and protect the biodiversity of the regional ecosystem. We thus call attention to the impact of business on strengthening community organizing and fostering biodiversity conservation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Increasing uncertainty has hindered the development of international trade in recent years. Participating in the global value chain (GVC) has become one way for Chinese export firms to deal with uncertainty and reduce external risks. Based on trade theory with heterogeneous firms, this study constructs a theoretical framework encompassing uncertainty and GVC participation. We find that uncertainty inhibits the export of firms, but GVC participation can alleviate the negative impact of uncertainty, which is verified through empirical analysis. Additionally, mechanism analysis reveals that GVC participation plays a moderating role through product diversity, market diversity, cost‐saving effects, and quality‐improving effects. This study demonstrates that in the absence of serious adverse events, GVC is highly efficient. Accordingly, China should actively participate in the governance of the COVID‐19 pandemic, reduce the external uncertainty faced by Chinese export firms, promote the return of an efficient GVC, and further ameliorate the negative impact of uncertainty. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Keywords: agriculture; economic valuation; global value chain; globalisation; pollination services; trade EN agriculture economic valuation global value chain globalisation pollination services trade 773 785 13 06/10/22 20220601 NES 220601 INTRODUCTION Animal pollination is a key process in the reproduction of many nutritious food crops (Aizen et al., 2008; Bailes et al., 2015). *: Negative numbers indicate economic gains as a result of price rises gl Of the 41-46 countries that experience economic gains following pollinator losses in affected countries, many experience relatively large gains (totalling $2.2-12.4 billion) that substantially offset the net global losses. *: Negative numbers indicate economic losses as a result of price rises gl Although economic gains are relatively much smaller than the losses, a number of countries that produce large areas of high-value insect-pollinated crops experience economic gains in every scenario. The model was more sensitive to price elasticity than pollinator dependence ratio in two of the three case studies, as the price rise resulting from falling production under the high elasticity scenarios (LDHE, HDHE) compensates for a greater proportion of the losses, even under the high pollinator dependence scenario (HDHE). [Extracted from the article]

This study advances theoretical insights into blockchain adoption in the context of global value chains from a transaction cost theory perspective. The research has adopted an exploratory qualitative approach using the Netnography method to scrutinize the case of TradeLens—a thriving blockchain‐enabled ecosystem that Maersk and IBM jointly developed. This study applies textual and audiovisual data from company websites and social media. Our findings indicate blockchain technology's salient and strategic relevance in streamlining business processes, improving efficiency, enhancing visibility, transparency, and traceability for value creation in the global value chains. This investigation supports the notion that blockchain, as a disruptor, will transform global trade with the digital tools to share real‐time information and collaborate security to reduce search and information cost, policing and enforcement cost in global economic transactions and administrative friction in trade. In contrast, the bargaining cost will increase if the information for the transaction is hard to verify where human actor intervention will be required, implying relatively higher designing costs in codifying the agreements in smart contracts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The emergence of global value chains (GVCs) appears due to the rise of international trade deregulation and market liberalization over the past decades. The rise of information and communication technologies, which supports knowledge‐intensive activities, has also radically transformed value capture across GVCs and raises the bar for value‐creating opportunities as a new generation of technologies emerges. Of particular relevance to GVCs is the rise of digital technologies, such as big data, the Internet of Things, and artificial intelligence. These technologies promise to herald a new era of connectedness, collaboration, and innovation, affording significant growth opportunities for GVCs. Digital platforms will play a key role for GVCs in orchestrating such value‐creating opportunities. There remains a lack of empirical understanding of how digital platforms can enable GVC strategy. The study seeks to address this question by reviewing the digital platform literature to support key GVC strategy learnings. Specifically, 61 "digital platform"–titled articles across 38 Chartered Association of Business Schools (ABS)‐ranked journals were reviewed. The study adopts Mainardi and Kleiner's (Strategy + Business, 2010, 61, pp. 1–14) "strategy landscape" framework to organize emerging findings. Eight key themes emerged from the literature to reveal critical issues for digital platforms. Implications for strategy are then discussed, revealing four key learnings for GVCs, namely, (i) boundary management, (ii) definition of the unit of analysis, (iii) alignment of capabilities, and (iv) governance and leadership. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite the increasing proliferation of deploying the internet of things (IoT) in the global value chain (GVC), several challenges might lead to a lack of trust among value chain partners, for example, technical challenges (i.e., confidentiality, authenticity, and privacy); and security challenges (i.e., counterfeiting, physical tampering, and data theft). In this study, we argue that blockchain technology (BT), when combined with the IoT ecosystem, will strengthen GVC and enhance value creation and capture among value chain partners. Therefore, we examine the impact of BT combined with the IoT ecosystem and how it can be utilized to enhance value creation and capture among value chain partners. We collected data through an online survey, and 265 U.K. Agri‐food retailers completed the survey. Our data were analyzed using structural equation modeling. Our finding reveals that BT enhances GVC by improving IoT scalability, security, and traceability combined with the IoT ecosystem. Moreover, the combination of BT and IoT strengthens GVC and creates more value for value chain partners, which serves as a competitive advantage. Finally, our research outlines the theoretical and practical contribution of combining BT and the IoT ecosystem. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The nontraditional export (NTE) sector promises to be the antidote to Africa's economic woes in the face of dwindling traditional exports. Adopting the Porter's Value Chain Framework and a case study design, we explore how alcoholic beverage companies in the African NTE sector could create value in their upstream, midstream, and downstream value chain activities through effective governance and digitization. In exploring these intricacies of governance and digitization within African global value chains (GVCs), we draw on two major case studies, Diageo South Africa and Kasapreko Ghana Limited. Our study shows that the NTE sector can contribute to both economic and social upgrading activities, contribute to industrialization and create international competitiveness for African firms. Second, GVC governance and digitization, even though still at its infant stages in Africa, has the potential in propelling economic value through the NTE sector. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Trust plays a crucial role in international business interactions, customers' behaviors, and the GVC process in the digital business environment. In a digital environment, trust advances relationship development, which enhances the global value chain interactions among all stakeholders. The recent studies demonstrate declining trust in digital businesses at the international level. International businesses, including large companies, are very uncertain about their future which presents difficulties for the state of the global economic systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we examine whether a firm's decision to export and its subsequent performance are related to its prior global connections. By tracking Canadian manufacturing firms over an eight‐year period between 2002 and 2010, we find that firms with prior global connections (such as importing) are more likely to subsequently become exporters. Productivity and skill intensity grow faster in this group in the short and longer run than those with no global connections. The growth advantage is affected by movements in the exchange rate. In general, growth rates in productivity and investments in physical, human, and intangible innovation R&D are greater for firms with more international connections. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This perspective article highlights some major implications of the recent pandemic (Covid‐19) on global value chains (GVCs) and how the pandemic can accelerate the adoption of digital and Industry 4.0 technologies in GVCs, with attention paid to multinational enterprises and small‐medium enterprises. Particularly, it discusses the potential value of digital technologies in enhancing GVC resilience for better mitigation of disruptions caused by future global shocks. It also proposes useful avenues for future policy considerations to support and direct deployment of digital technologies across key stakeholders in GVCs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Scholarly interest in global value chain (GVC) has gained momentum in recent years, yet a comprehensive framework that elucidates how GVC affects an important firm‐level outcome—innovation performance (IP)—is so far elusive. To address this gap, we develop a conceptual framework related to three diversities (activity, governance structure, and partner location) that lead firms in GVC utilize in order to enhance IP. We draw upon the GVC and social capital research to develop the framework. We propose that the three diversities (collectively termed as triversity) have the potential to affect lead firms' IP positively as well as negatively. We further propose that mechanisms related to the three dimensions of social capital (relational, cognitive, and structural) help augment the positive effects and mitigate the negative effects of triversity on IP. This article contributes to the understanding of the relationship between GVC triversity, IP, and social mechanism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this work, we propose the heuristic and explicative possibilities of agrifood fields analysis (AFFA) for the historical study of capitalism in agriculture and food. This approach considers the agroclimatic conditions of the territories and the sociocultural plurality of the actors who inhabit them. This phenomenological and eco‐territorial approach allows to study, on many scales, the networks of social relations in which actors take part who are competing for the benefits that are created by human labor applied to producing certain foods and making them accessible to consumers. To show the value of the AFFA, we present a historical study of the agrifood field that was developed from the production of fresh fruits and vegetables in the Rio Grande Valley in South Texas and several regions of Mexico for the market in the United States and Canada. The concept of sociocultural brokerage allowed us to take into account the social and cultural plurality in the AFFA and the role played by the creativity and skills of the actors in managing the resources of knowledge, society, technology, and capital at their disposal. This way we were able to explain the dynamics of power and the changes in agrifood governance in the field. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Services have long been blamed for their stagnant productivity and cost disease. This study demonstrates that producer services defy the cost disease. We explore, in the context of global value chains (GVCs), how the growth of producer services helps improve the productivity of final goods and services and how the effects differ for local and foreign sources of producer services. The GVC revolution, along with technological progress, expands the market and deepens division of labor across the world, which, in turn, magnifies the available varieties of producer services as intermediate inputs. The proliferation of producer services, along with their productivity enhancement induced by the GVC competition, helps boost the overall productivity and reduces the cost of supplying producer services. We develop a simple model to justify this mechanism and employ the World Input-Output Database to quantify producer services and the GVC division of labor. The empirical results are consistent with theoretical predictions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We propose a new convergence potential indicator for standard growth convergence regressions: the global value chain (GVC) position index, measured by the contribution of high‐skilled labour in total domestic value added. Our convergence indicator can avoid the lagged dependent variable problem discussed in Barro (2015 and 2016) and deliver more accurate forecasts for China's GDP growth than GDP per capita does. Using the GVC position index, we predict that China's growth potential remains at 7–8% between 2010 and 2015, while the predictions using GDP per capita as the convergence potential indicator are much lower. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The electronics industry has one of the most complex global production chains in the international economy. Using data from the World Input–Output Database for the period 2000–14, this article traces individual contributions to the value chain in order to observe how financial turmoil has affected its evolution over time and to map international interactions. The authors point to a rise in offshoring until the outbreak of the global financial crisis of 2007–08, as China and other Eastern Asian economies became an essential node of value creation. They also detect a deep transformation of production technologies, accompanied by a process of upskilling. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In rapidly expanding global and regional preferential trade agreements (PTA) networks, policy‐makers are keen to situate their countries in a better position, believing that a better position in PTA networks will help their economies trade more and grow faster. In this paper, we provide a theory that explains how changes in countries' PTA network positions affect their trade performance. We argue that a dense and deep "neighbor network" provides a country with a wide access to global value chains, better protection to investment, and strong credibility to their policy commitments. To measure trade performance, we compute value‐added exports at the country, year, and industry level across 43 countries, 56 industries, and 15 years (2000–14). The estimation of network position effects is done by panel fixed‐effects methods and the sample‐splitting and cross‐fitting double machine‐learning method. The findings show that as a country's neighbors have deeper and wider PTA networks, the country's value‐added exports grow faster. Also, the industry‐level analysis shows that sectors heavily engaging in the fragmentation of production stages exhibit faster growth with the improvement of neighbor networks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study investigates the rising role of China's domestic market expansion from 1995 to 2011 in the world economy's growth. China maintained high domestic expenditure growth during the entire period, with even bigger increases in the last years, when the global financial crisis and subsequent economic recovery occurred. The expenditures facilitated rapid growth through high demand for durable goods, which are produced across widely fragmented Asian channels. At the same time, China integrated further into the global economy and imported intermediate goods increasingly became embedded in goods for domestic sale. These two forces combined to magnify the impact of China's market expansion on foreign economies but disproportionately more on its neighbouring countries and sectors related to durable goods production. Specifically, our estimates suggest that the expenditure growth in China over the 2009–11 period added about 1 percentage point to the annual GDP growth rate in Taiwan, Malaysia and Korea, while the NAFTA and EU member countries typically benefited by less than 0.1 percentage point. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present paper explores how intellectual property rights (IPR) protection affects an economy's status in global value chains (GVC) by introducing IPR protection into the sequential production model. We find that a suitable IPR protection system that matches the phase of economic and technological development a country has reached is the key for developing countries to upgrade their status in GVC, which are dominated by multinational firms from developed countries. Empirical analysis with multinational panel data for 55 countries from 2005 to 2015 provides evidence in support of the predictions of this model, although the GVC‐enhancing effects of IPR protection are heterogeneous for developing and developed countries. The empirical conclusions are robust after using the instrumental variable method and controlling for endogeneity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Global terrorism incidents and business‐related threats have intensified in scale and scope over the past 17 years. Multinational corporations are thus exposed to direct and indirect negative impacts on their international activities. Previous research lacks thorough theoretical frameworks to analyze these impacts. The global value chain (GVC) framework offers a perspective that is both comprehensive and quantifiable for the evaluation and expansion of this prior research. The GVC enables us to assess terrorism impacts on international business overall and at each stage of the value chain. On this basis, we develop a "terrorism resilience theory") that can be used in future theoretical and managerial analyses of the response to terrorism risk. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper develops a model to study how suppliers' financial constraint interact with suppliers' position in a global value chain. I embed financial frictions into the property‐rights model of the global value chain, as in Antràs and Chor (Econometrica, 2013, 81, 2127), to derive the optimal allocation of ownership rights along the global value chain. The model predicts that multinational firms are more likely to integrate downstream intermediate input suppliers in countries with weak financial institutions when the production process is sequential complements. Using US intrafirm trade data for the years 2000–10, together with a triple‐interaction term between "downstreamness" of an industry, demand elasticity of an industry and financial development of a country, I provide empirical evidence that supports the key prediction of the model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article, I propose to study environmental degradation and the deterioration of the health of workers and other inhabitants in regions of Mexico where intensive fruit and vegetable production for export has been developed. My proposition is that to understand the unsustainability of such agricultural practices in all their complexity, it is necessary to analyse historically the total agri‐food field of relations established by producers, distributors, and consumers in codependency with the natural environment. This analysis of the agri‐food field allows a multidimensional and multiscale study to be conducted of the hierarchical distribution of power and of economic benefits among the different social actors of the food system. This analysis also allowed us to study the development of the capitalist regime without going into the dichotomy of centre and periphery and to propose that it is a decentralized process with a multiplicity of locations that operates on the basis of mutual associations and influences between human and non‐human elements, with the active participation of a great variety of independent, collective, and institutional actors who have differentiated motivations, ranges of power and scales of value. The case study of Mexican export agriculture was the result of long‐term research based on a wide review of regional studies, field work statistics, and archives in Mexico and the United States. This cross‐border study makes it possible to identify asymmetrical transnational relations in a context in which the Mexican government has renounced its territorial and agri‐food sovereignty and Mexican consumers face greater vulnerability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although fields such as industrial ecology have advanced our understanding of how cleaner technologies, recycling, and lifestyle changes can reduce the impacts of production and consumption on people and planet, environmental deterioration and social injustices stubbornly persist. New strategies are needed to achieve change in an era of increasing urgency. This paper proposes that academics study the supply chains of individual corporations and link them to environmental and social impacts in geographically specific areas. Nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) have used this approach successfully, issuing reports about corporate activity related to deforestation, sweatshops, and other issues of social concern. But academics, by and large, have studied generic products, industries, and sectors. To verify this, after reviewing approximately 11,000 studies on supply chains, we identified just 27 academic papers that focused on individual corporations. These were primarily by NGOs and social scientists, with no studies by industrial ecologists meeting our review criteria. To uncover corporate supply chains, researchers used two distinct methodological approaches: in situ (interviews, surveys, and surveillance) and ex situ (trade data, document analysis, and maps). In this paper, we explain why and how academics should study the supply chains of individual corporations. This is done by combining approaches from industrial ecology, with those from geography, sociology, and other social sciences to develop a political‐industrial ecology of supply chains. This both physically links actual product flows with their environmental impacts, and explores how they affect justice, equity, and welfare. The work we propose offers clear collaborative linkages with NGOs, industry, and the media. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Better understanding of the effect of the global value chain (GVC) on wages is a key issue for determining welfare gains from engagement in international integration. We study whether and how China's engagement in the GVC enhances firms' wage by using firm‐level and customs transaction‐level data covering the period 2000–06 with the methods of propensity score matching (PSM), difference in differences (DID) and generalised propensity score (GPS). The empirical results show that first, GVC engagement can improve firms' wage. Second, the improvement effect is more prominent in capital‐intensive and foreign‐invested enterprises. Third, the degree of embedment in the GVC shows a U‐shaped relationship with wages (the marginal improvement changes from decreasing to increasing). Finally, by analysing the mechanism, we find that participation in the GVC ultimately improves the overall wage level of enterprises through the productivity effect and the reallocation effect of labour demand. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Increasing and persistent regional income inequality contrasts strikingly with the world economy's outstanding performance, especially in China. Constructing direct import penetration and indirect intermediate import exposure indexes within a global value chain framework and evaluating regional disparities with nighttime light data, this analysis uncovers the effect of both direct and indirect import penetration on the regional income gap in China, and delves into potential mechanisms from economic development, industrial structure, and factor mobility. Our findings suggest that the positive effect of indirect import exposure of intermediate inputs lies in minimizing regional income disparities, while the effect of direct import exposure remains obscure. In addition, growing disparities in trade openness and fixed capital investment exacerbate regional inequality, in contrast to the positive role that government intervention plays in narrowing the income gap. These results are expected to hold for other countries at similar stages of development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article, we explore how a lead firm's strategy for corporate social responsibility influences the social upgrading of a supplier in a global value chain. Based on a single case study approach, we investigate the interaction between Dutch smartphone producer Fairphone and its Chinese supplier Guohong. On the one hand, the case illustrates how a cooperative approach to corporate social responsibility can lead to progress in suppliers' social upgrading. In particular, we highlight the role of a so‐called workers' welfare fund as a mechanism not only for improving measurable labour standards but also for enabling rights. On the other hand, the case demonstrates how the limited production and technological capabilities of the suppliers, a competitive market environment and lead firms' limited strategic access to the supply chain might constrain the extent of social upgrading through a cooperative approach towards corporate social responsibility in a global value chain. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the effects of trade barriers on China's participation in the global value chain (GVC) using a thorough decomposition approach for trade volume, total exports, final exports and intermediate exports. Our econometric results indicate that anti‐dumping (AD) measures initiated by trade partners have restrained the process of China's participation in the GVC. From 2000 to 2014, AD measures reduced the foreign value‐added rate of total, final and intermediate exports by 4.5 to 28.7 percent, 3.4 to 17 percent and 1.2 to 8.5 percent, respectively. In addition, suffering the effects of AD measures, China's GVC position index declined by 8.2 percent to 28.6 percent during this period. Moreover, AD measures have increased industries' upstream index by 3.2 to 13.7 percent over the same period. These results imply that both the petition and approval of AD cases has had a negative influence on the extent and position of China's GVC participation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A growing body of scholarship analyzes the emergence and resilience of forced labor in developing countries within global value chains. However, little is known about how forced labor arises within domestic supply chains concentrated within national borders, producing products for domestic consumption. We conduct one of the first studies of forced labor in domestic supply chains, through a cross‐industry comparison of the regulatory gaps surrounding forced labor in the United Kingdom. We find that understanding the dynamics of forced labor in domestic supply chains requires us to conceptually modify the global value chain framework to understand similarities and differences across these contexts. We conclude that addressing the governance gaps that surround forced labor will require scholars and policymakers to carefully refine their thinking about how we might design operative governance that effectively engages with local variation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: The link between exchange rate and trade has been studied for a long time, but there is no consensus about their relation. This paper tests the old argument, whether depreciation of real effective exchange rates (REERs) raises exports. We differentiate the test with earlier studies by employing a new measurement of REER and incorporating the effect of GVCs. We measured REER at industry level with value‐added trade weights. We analysed the topic with LSDV and system GMM for China, Japan and Korea since these counties are known to participate actively in GVCs. Our main finding is that exchange rate has significant impact on trade for three countries. However, the movement of elasticity of export to REER varies by country. While the elasticity in China decreased over time, Korea and Japan experienced increasing patterns between mid‐1990s and mid‐2000s and decreasing trends afterwards. This study also tests whether the level of incorporation in GVCs causes a change in elasticity. The results show that growing participation in GVCs lowers the elasticity of export to REER in absolute value. However, this result is only statistically significant in Korea. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Employment impact of trade is an issue of long debate. Recent literature seems to focus on partial equilibrium analysis of the jobs destruction in the US due to import competition from low‐cost countries, particularly from China. However, as noted in World Investment Report 2011 (WIR, 2012), indirect employment generated by trade can be substantial, in addition to jobs directly generated by trade, to which end a general equilibrium model is more relevant. Just as in a relay game, it makes little sense to award or punish only the last runner. In this paper, a global value chain approach is adopted to examine the effects of the US–China trade on employment. By using a recently constructed world input–output data, it is made possible to account for jobs created along the value chain process. It is found that China's exports to the US and to the world had created more job opportunities for its trade partners than any other countries in the world. Further, China's exports to the US and to the world tended to generate more employment opportunities for the US services sector, while US exports created more manufacturing jobs for the Chinese workers. Finally, in both countries’ exports the typical value chain products such as electrical and optical equipment were the most effective creators of jobs for both countries. In line with recent work of global value chains, our work sheds light on the employment effects of interconnected trade and provides an alternative interpretation for the impact of the US–China trade on employment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: After having been put aside for three decades, industrial policy has reappeared in the research and policy debate on economic development in the Global South. However, it has also been argued that fragmented and decentralized value chains have foreclosed the traditional role of industrial policy. The article reviews three strands of thinking, exploring to what extent and how one can align the call for new industrial policy with the expansion of global value chains? It shows how the research agenda can be moved forward by realigning contributions from global value chain scholarship with researchers who take their point of departure concerning new industrial policy in structural transformation, technological capability and innovation system thinking. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: This article examines structural adjustment in the world apparel trade following the abolition of Multi‐Fibre Arrangement (MFA) quotas through a case study of the apparel industry in Sri Lanka. The evidence suggests that, in a quota‐free global market, individual exporting countries have room for carving out a niche in specific products. The Sri Lankan apparel industry has managed to maintain growth dynamism through specialization in intimate apparel and upmarket casualwear. The expansion of the industry and its adjustment to MFA abolition was aided by an easily trainable domestic workforce and collaborative actions of industry associations and the government, with foreign buyers playing a pivotal role in linking the Sri Lankan firms to the global value chain. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Chinese economy is slowing down and is in the midst of a structural transformation from export-led and investment-led growth to domestic demand-led and consumption-led growth. While there are widespread concerns among China's trading partners about the effect of the slowdown in China's growth on their exports, China's structural changes are also likely to have a significant impact: for example, China will import fewer machines and more cosmetics. The central objective of the present paper is to empirically examine the effect of China's structural transformation on the exports of East Asian economies, which have close trade linkages with China. We find that economies that have failed to increase the share of consumption goods in their exports to China have suffered larger declines in their quantities of exports to China. In addition, economies that have suffered losses in their shares of China's parts and components imports have faced reductions in their shares in China's total imports. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While the strategic management literature on corporate social responsibility (CSR) is abundant, it tends to consider the context of developed countries, with a focus on certain specific issues such as the strategic behaviour of firms with regard to sustainable development and the economic benefits of CSR practices. The present study examines the influence of western organizations on responsible corporate behaviour in developing countries, an issue that has been somewhat neglected in the existing academic literature. In particular, it explores the environmental upgrading of developing country firms in global value chains. This research, conducted with the analytic hierarchy process (AHP) method, involves 24 Tunisian olive oil companies. The findings indicate that exporting companies have indeed benefited from environmental upgrading, but, because of the cooperation strategy adopted by leading western firms (imposition of standards) and the absence of financial and technical assistance, the extent of environmental upgrading remains limited. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a measure of effective multifactor productivity (MFP) growth for Canada, the U.S., Australia, Japan and selected EU countries. The measure differs from the standard MFP growth as it measures productivity growth in the production of different types of products instead of by industry and it captures the effect of productivity gains in both foreign and domestic upstream industries. The paper finds that the increase in effective MFP is closely associated with the decline in output price and improvement in international competitiveness. Multifactor productivity growth for small, open economies and for the production of manufacturing, investment and export goods is partly attributable to productivity gains in the production of intermediate inputs in foreign countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper analyses changes experienced by Spain as a European peripheral region in the automobile global value chain ( GVC). Our attention is focused on both spatial concentration of value-added and high-skill activities, and generation of technology in the components industry. The analysis of plants set up (investments) and relocated (divestments) by multinationals ( MNEs) between 2001 and 2010 shows that Spain is no longer a place for labour-intensive activities and standardized processes using simple technologies in comparison with other peripheral regions. However, the continuing majority presence of foreign-owned companies is limiting decision power for generating and transferring technology, concentrating it mainly in the areas in which Spanish MNEs are specialized. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article applies a global value-chain framework to the tobacco industry in Malawi, showing how cigarette manufacturers govern the chain and control first-tier suppliers, the leaf merchants. Contract farming offers smallholders the ability to meet manufacturers' compliance and traceability requirements and an opportunity for process and product upgrading, but threatens to exclude poorer growers. The article concludes by highlighting the role leaf merchants can play in diversifying Malawi's economic base and suggests research avenues to understand this rapid institutional evolution better. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]