We adopt a 'parsimonious' approach to measuring economic and social upgrading over 1990-2009 in four global value chains -apparel, mobile phones, agrofoods and tourismbased entirely on data published by international institutions. Economic upgrading is defined as a combination of growth in export market shares and export unit values. Social upgrading is a combination of changes in employment and real wages. We find considerable variation across sectors in the relation between economic and social change. 'Downgrading' is not uncommon, especially in the social realm. Economic upgrading is often not associated with social upgrading, but outside of the tourism sector, social upgrading occurs almost always when economic upgrading is also observed. This paper provides a comprehensive report on the findings in the four sectors and detailed statistical appendixes. A summary presentation without appendixes can be found in Capturing the Gains Working Paper 2011/07. .
Standard-Nutzungsbedingungen:Die Dokumente auf EconStor dürfen zu eigenen wissenschaftlichen Zwecken und zum Privatgebrauch gespeichert und kopiert werden.Sie dürfen die Dokumente nicht für öffentliche oder kommerzielle Zwecke vervielfältigen, öffentlich ausstellen, öffentlich zugänglich machen, vertreiben oder anderweitig nutzen.Sofern die Verfasser die Dokumente unter Open-Content-Lizenzen (insbesondere CC-Lizenzen) zur Verfügung gestellt haben sollten, gelten abweichend von diesen Nutzungsbedingungen die in der dort genannten Lizenz gewährten Nutzungsrechte. Recent decades have witnessed an increasing integration of developing countries into global value chains (GVCs). This growing participation in global production sharing has raised hopes for economic upgrading within such value chains. However, globalization has intensified international competition, and achieving economic upgrading is not an easy task. Moreover, the social consequences of participating in GVCs are not always positive; however, they have received considerably less attention in the literature. This paper suggests a simple and parsimonious approach to measuring economic and social upgrading (and downgrading) in GVCs. Applying this parsimonious methodology and using quantitative secondary data, we analyze how widespread upgrading has been in four selected manufacturing GVCs: apparel, wood furniture, automotive, and mobile phones. We also investigate to what extent downgrading is part of the reality and undertake a comparative analysis across GVCs, regions and country groups (developing vs. developed countries). We find that the promise of industrial upgrading through participation in GVCs does not materialize for everyone. Indeed, economic upgrading has taken place in just over a quarter of the countries in our sample, among them mainly developing countries. Finally, we examine the relationship between economic performance and social performance in the different GVCs to investigate whether or not economic upgrading is typically associated with social upgrading. While patterns differ across GVCs, we find that economic upgrading is more likely to occur simultaneously with social upgrading than without, and vice versa. Our analysis, thus, suggests that economic upgrading is conducive to, but not sufficient for, social upgrading to occur. Terms of use: Documents in
We implement a "parsimonious" and operational approach to measuring economic and social upgrading over 1990-2009 in four global value chains --apparel, mobile phones, agrofoods and tourism --based entirely on data published by international institutions. Economic upgrading is defined as a combination of growth in export market shares and export unit values. Social upgrading is a combination of changes in employment and real wages. We find considerable variation across sectors in the relation between economic and social change. "Downgrading" is not uncommon, especially in the social realm. Economic upgrading is often not associated with social upgrading, but social upgrading occurs almost always when economic upgrading is also observed.
This paper applies a parsimonious measurement approach to study how a sample of developing countries have performed in the global apparel industry during the past decade, and particularly after the phase-out of the Multi-Fibre Arrangement (MFA) in 2004, and to trace their economic and social upgrading and downgrading trajectories. It also addresses the question of whether economic upgrading leads to social upgrading and, more generally, investigates the relationship between economic performance and social performance in the apparel sector. This analysis takes a quantitative approach and is based on a narrow set of indicators. While maintaining a rigorous and parsimonious approach to measuring economic and social upgrading using secondary data, the analysis undertaken here also draws on case study literature to embed the findings and provide explanations for the outcomes of this parsimonious approach. Looking at the performance of selected apparel-producing developing countries in the 2000s (and particularly post-MFA), we find there have been not only winners (upgraders) but also quite a number of losers (downgraders). In general, while economic upgrading has been fairly widespread among the countries in our sample, social upgrading has been more difficult to achieve. Conversely, while downgrading also occurred in the economic sphere, it has been far more common in the social realm. Meanwhile, the results of our investigation of the relationship between economic performance and social performance suggest that economic upgrading does not automatically translate into, but seems to be conducive to, social upgrading.
Standard-Nutzungsbedingungen:Die Dokumente auf EconStor dürfen zu eigenen wissenschaftlichen Zwecken und zum Privatgebrauch gespeichert und kopiert werden.Sie dürfen die Dokumente nicht für öffentliche oder kommerzielle Zwecke vervielfältigen, öffentlich ausstellen, öffentlich zugänglich machen, vertreiben oder anderweitig nutzen.Sofern die Verfasser die Dokumente unter Open-Content-Lizenzen (insbesondere CC-Lizenzen) zur Verfügung gestellt haben sollten, gelten abweichend von diesen Nutzungsbedingungen die in der dort genannten Lizenz gewährten Nutzungsrechte. Recent decades have witnessed an increasing integration of developing countries into global value chains (GVCs). This growing participation in global production sharing has raised hopes for economic upgrading within such value chains. However, globalization has intensified international competition, and achieving economic upgrading is not an easy task. Moreover, the social consequences of participating in GVCs are not always positive; however, they have received considerably less attention in the literature. This paper suggests a simple and parsimonious approach to measuring economic and social upgrading (and downgrading) in GVCs. Applying this parsimonious methodology and using quantitative secondary data, we analyze how widespread upgrading has been in four selected manufacturing GVCs: apparel, wood furniture, automotive, and mobile phones. We also investigate to what extent downgrading is part of the reality and undertake a comparative analysis across GVCs, regions and country groups (developing vs. developed countries). We find that the promise of industrial upgrading through participation in GVCs does not materialize for everyone. Indeed, economic upgrading has taken place in just over a quarter of the countries in our sample, among them mainly developing countries. Finally, we examine the relationship between economic performance and social performance in the different GVCs to investigate whether or not economic upgrading is typically associated with social upgrading. While patterns differ across GVCs, we find that economic upgrading is more likely to occur simultaneously with social upgrading than without, and vice versa. Our analysis, thus, suggests that economic upgrading is conducive to, but not sufficient for, social upgrading to occur. Terms of use: Documents in
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