Inequality and Income Distribution in Global Value Chains

Global value chains (GVCs), led by transnational corporations (TNCs), have reshaped the world division of labor over the past two decades. GVCs are pervasive in low technology manufacturing, such as textile and apparel, as well as in more advanced industries like automobiles, electronics, and machines. This hierarchical division of labor generates wild competition at the lower value-added stages of production, where low wages and low profit margins prevail for workers and contract manufacturers in developing countries. At the top of the hierarchy another kind of competition prevails, centered on the ability to monitor and control intellectual property rights related to innovation, finance, and marketing. We argue that GVCs have had crucial effects on income inequality and the appropriation of rents in modern capitalism.     

Value-Added Erosion in Global Value Chains: An Empirical Assessment

In the period from 1995 to 2008, many countries experienced what we call the “value-added erosion.” It describes the decline in the sectoral shares of domestic value-added in a country’s exports as the country becomes more integrated into the global value chains (GVCs). We argue that the decline of the domestic value-added share in a country’s exports is likely to be caused by the expansion of high value-adding activities performed by foreign lead firms in the upper stream of the GVCs. The variables of interest — the domestic value-added share in exports and foreign high-skill labor embodied in a country’s exports (a proxy for foreign lead firms’ high value-adding activities) — are estimated using a multi-regional global input-output model. Using these results and other control variables, we apply a panel cointegration model to explain and assess the likelihood of value-added erosion and its possible determinants.     

全球价值链框架下的黑龙江省亚麻产业发展研究

20世纪80年代以来,全球价值链的研究得到社会普遍重视。很多学者也把产业发展与价值链的发展相结合,为中国各产业的发展提供了指导与借鉴意义。黑龙江省独有的亚麻资源的发展,使得亚麻产业得到社会和学术研究群体的重视,目前,亚麻产业的发展正处于突破阶段,从全球价值链的角度来研究亚麻产业发展具有重要的理论意义和实践意义。     

全球价值链下特色产业集群升级机理探析

特色产业集群是在特定技术、资源和市场条件下发展起来的经济组织,由于自身产业结构和功能的局限性,其发展表现出更大的锁定性和衰退风险,在全球经济一体化和价值片段化背景下,嵌入全球价值链是它更为重要的升级途径。本文通过提出问题,梳理文献,影响升级因素分析的基础上,构建了特色产业集群全球价值链下的升级机理框架。     

Digital Economy Development,Institutional Quality and Upstreamness of Global Value Chains

By building a composite index for measuring national digital economy development and sectoral digital intensities, this paper derives metrics of industry-level digital economy penetration under the framework of specialization within global value chains (GVCs), systematically analyzes the mechanisms through which digital economy development affects GVCs upstreamness, and examines the moderating effect of institutional quality. The study shows that different dimensions of digital economy development significantly boost GVCs upstreamness, a conclusion that holds even after accounting for endogeneity through dynamic panel models with instrumental variables based on past data. Further research shows that technological innovation capabilities and resource allocation efficiency have gradually become important channels for digital economy development to boost GVCs upstreamness. Adding indicators on institutional quality reveals that greater institutional quality not only directly promotes GVCs upstreamness but also reinforces the impact of digital economy development on higher GVCs positioning.     

Global Value Chains,Horizontal Intra-Industry Trade and the Heterogeneous Firm

This paper examines global value chains at the level of the heterogeneous firm. The context is a world of horizontal intra-industry trade, characterized by imperfect competition and product differentiation at the firm level. Standard microeconomic tools are employed to assess the effects of inter-firm dissimilarities in both demand and supply on firms’ responses to changes in trade policy. In this set-up, dissimilarities in firm characteristics play roles similar to factor endowments and technology differences in traditional trade models. When cross-border production sharing (“fragmentation”) is introduced into this framework, those differences in firm characteristics determine the degree to which individual firms will enter into production networks. In this context, horizontal and vertical intra-industry trade elements interact in their effects on firm decisions. Traditional comparative advantage considerations still govern the choice of off-shored activities, while direct competition between imports and exports expands the range of possible outcomes. Finally, it is shown that cross-border production sharing reduces the sensitivity of firms to variations in exchange rates, matching a phenomenon that has been observed in traditional country-level models.     

The Outsourcing of Manufacturing and the Rise of Giant Global Contractors: A Marxian Approach to Some Recent Transformations of Global Value Chains

This article aims to show that the Marxian ‘law of value’ can provide solid foundations for the comprehension of the constitution and dynamics of Global Value Chains (GVC). It offers an explanation of the social processes of ‘value creation and capture’ within a chain based on the system-wide motion of global capital accumulation. A firm connection is thus established between the particular dynamics internal to each industry and the general dynamics of the ‘system as a whole’, which is, precisely, where the greatest weakness of the GVC approach lies. Furthermore, the usefulness of those general theoretical insights is then shown through a more empirical discussion of recent transformations in the composition and governance structure of GVC resulting from two interrelated processes: the tendency for a growing de-linking between innovation and manufacturing and the rise of highly concentrated global contractors. These phenomena have paradigmatically developed in the electronics industry, giving rise to the formation of the so-called modular or turnkey production networks. The discussion therefore focuses on that particular industrial sector.     

Global Value Chains in the Era of Digital Economy: Trends,Risks and Countermeasures

The new technological revolution has not only created the digital economy, but has also accelerated the digital transformation of global value chains (GVCs). Digital technologies have reshaped the specialization within global value chains by reducing costs, enabling industrial chains and increasing added value in exports. However, GVCs also face salient risks in the digital economy era, as reflected in their spatial layouts. The enabling effect of digital technologies has led to the shortening and reshoring of global value chains. In value chain governance, dominant countries have imposed technological embargoes on ascendant countries, depriving them of key technologies. In the distribution of value, the imbalances in the specialization within GVCs and digital divides have aggravated global economic inequities. Given the new characteristics and risks of GVCs in the era of the digital economy, as well as the “dual circulation” development paradigm, China’s industrial chains and firms moving up the GVCs need to regard data, the fifth type of production factor, as a key to the enabling effect of the digital economy on industries. These measures will advance the digital transformation of traditional industries and the development of the digital industry, as well as allow industrial chains and innovation chains to work in tandem to facilitate favorable domestic circulation. At the firm level, enterprises should further develop endogenous innovation capacity to become leaders in innovation and free themselves from dependence on foreign sources for key technologies.     

Global value chains in Africa and development of opportunities by poor landholders

Abstract

In an effort to help address severe levels of poverty, multinational firms are increasingly seeking to include African smallholders in their global value chains (GVCs). Despite efforts of multinationals to provide such opportunities, the number of successful inclusions remains limited. We draw from the entrepreneurship domain to approach this important issue from an opportunity perspective. At the heart of our effort to develop a greater theoretical understanding is the insight that opportunities can both be discovered and created by smallholders. The key implication of this insight is that multinationals will gain more from their efforts to include small landholders in their GVCs if they adapt their value chain systems in ways that also accommodate joint creation of opportunities with smallholders rather than expect that all smallholders adapt to the systems developed by the large global firms for their large suppliers.     

基于全球价值链的中国汽车产业升级路径分析

经济全球化趋势下,中国经济的高速发展吸引了世界主要的跨国汽车公司来华投资,国内主要汽车集团通过和跨国汽车公司进行合资,嵌入其主导的全球价值链;同时,国内一批新兴汽车企业,坚持自主创新,树立自主品牌,构建自己主导的全球价值链。利用全球价值链理论,对两者不同发展模式及中国汽车产业升级的利弊进行了分析,并从自主创新的角度对中国汽车产业的升级提出建议。     

Workers in Food Distribution: Global Commodity Chains and Lean Logistics

This paper examines warehouse workers' experiences of the labour process and employment relations in an ambient food distribution depot governed by a labour management system described as lean logistics. Lean logistics is seen by the sector as an aid to, and necessary development of, the globalisation of the sector's supply chain (global commodity chain). The focus is on how the restructuring of work as a result of lean logistics and the consequent imposition of a supermarket Taylorist work culture led to the demise of an industrial workplace culture and a dramatic deterioration in pay and working conditions. The latter included an increase in the scope and intensity of management control of labour.     

略论全球价值链外包体系与中国产业升级的动态关系

全球价值链外包体系的形成是国际分工深化和经济全球化的必然结果。中国产业在国际分工的低层次地位使得寻求产业升级的路径变得更加迫切。通过对全球价值链外包体系的形成以及中国产业在其中地位的分析,提出在全球价值链外包体系中加速中国产业升级的措施。     

关于全球价值链理论的研究综述

本文综述了全球价值链概念的形成过程,全球价值链的二元驱动机制,全球价值链中经济租的产生和分配,全球价值链的治理模式以及全球价值链下的产业升级。     

African farmers’ market organizations and global value chains: competitiveness versus inclusiveness

Abstract

This conceptual paper discusses the challenges smallholder producer cooperatives in developing countries face while trying to access agricultural global value chains. We assess the problem of competitiveness related to lack of commitment and improper selection. Prioritization of open membership over selection is generally taken for granted in the policy debate on farmers’ market organizations (FMOs). We argue that open membership may work in community-driven organizations, however, it becomes a major threat for entrepreneurial FMOs. Inclusion facilitates free riding, which forms a barrier for investments of members. This is one of the major reasons why so many of these organizations are so much resource constrained, i.e. are not able to compete in the market without external support. FMOs should take targeting and selection serious if entrepreneurial activities are intended. Otherwise, they miss the opportunity to create a committed member base willing to invest in a potentially competitive organization.     

The World Trade Collapse and International Value Chains: A Cross-Country Perspective

This paper challenges the mainstream narrative that links the strength and speed of the world trade collapse in 2008–2009 to the international fragmentation of production, organized in international value chains. The paper points out often overlooked counteracting forces such as non-bank-intermediated credit, trust in long-term commercial affairs and intra-firm relationships. A cross-section of the strength and speed of the import decline in 42 countries shows that both the share of manufacturing trade and an indicator for the vertical specialization in trade are associated with less contraction and slower adjustment. Countries with large shares of manufactures in trade (a proxy for international value chain activity) and/or vertical specialization in trade did not reduce their trade more strongly. The empirical evidence points out that international value chains may very well have had a major dampening effect that reduced the extent to which world trade fell.     

全球价值链中市场剩余分配关系研究

通过建立“多层中间商交换模型”得出：在生产者一消费者,以及生产者一多层中间商一消费者共存的均衡市场中,市场总剩余的大小与消费者意愿相关,市场参与者所获剩余是非对称的,生产商获得的剩余随中间商数量的增多而减少,所以处在全球价值链低端的生产企业利润微薄现象在经济上具有一定的合理性;为在全球价值链中获取更多由销售环节丢失的巨额利润,改善实物份额与价值份额“大背离”状况,着力打造中国自己的“商业航母”,提高市场拓展和扩张能力尤为重要。     

制造业价值链拓展升级、结构调整与经济持续增长

本文通过分析表明,我国目前面临的多种结构性问题和矛盾的主要根源在于我国制造业在全球生产价值链中的位置低下,因此驱使制造业沿着生产价值链路径向上拓展升级就是我国实现经济结构调整、转变经济增长方式的必由之路。我国经济发展已形成的制造业大国格局和高等教育快速发展所带来的劳动力人力资本结构变化,使我国的要素禀赋发生了很大变化,已为我国制造业的转型升级提供了必备的条件。在制造业沿着生产价值链阶梯拓展升级的路径上,企业生产技术水平和研发实力的不断提升,以及自主品牌的策划营销和市场的不断开拓,是其中的两个关键环节。制造业的转型升级是一个长期的过程,既需要企业自身的努力,也需要政府在制度和政策上加以鼓励和引导,并在税收和融资等方面加以扶持。     

Sharing Common Resources in Patriarchal and Status-Based Societies: Evidence from Tanzania

ABSTRACT

In rural African societies, socioeconomic differentiation linked to gender and social status exerts an important influence on the distribution of common-pool resources. Through a behavioral experiment conducted in 2008 in rural Tanzania, this contribution examines the influence of gender and social status on distribution behavior of users of self-governed common watersheds. It finds that men and women with low social status distribute water equally when water is abundant but keep larger shares when water is scarce, although low-status women try to be as fair as possible at the expense of their returns from irrigated agriculture. Men of high social status keep more than half of the available water for themselves, both in abundance and scarcity, and deprive others from sizeable returns from irrigated agriculture. Women of high social status share altruistically when water is abundant and equally when water is scarce, giving up on returns from irrigated agriculture.     

全球价值链中的最优生产组织决策模型研究

为探寻跨国公司对全球价值链实现协调与控制的最优生产组织安排,在不完全契约理论框架下,扩展并构建了基于全球价值链的生产组织决策模型,其中重点考查了跨国公司与产业链上下游企业之间的议价能力及股权决定。研究表明跨国公司在每一生产阶段的最优组织模式选择与其在价值链上所处的生产阶段密切相关,并受到投入品替代弹性、最终产品替代弹性以及总部服务密集度等因素的影响。