Investing in Innovation and Skills: Thriving through Global Value Chains

Abstract

This paper investigates empirically the interplay between participation and positioning in global value chains (GVCs), employment demand and supply and workforce's skills endowment. Results touch upon the way innovation, technology and participation in GVCs shape employment in routine intensive and non-routine jobs; the relationship between participation in GVCs and polarisation of employment; the way the skill composition of a country's workforce-both the type of skills and their distribution-shapes specialisation and positioning along GVCs; and the complementarities emerging between GVC participation and investment in knowledge-based capital, especially organisational capital and ICT.

Asymmetries in Global Value Chain Integration, Technology and Employment Structures in Europe: Country and Sectoral Evidence

“…The complexity of such interactions is further explored by a recent work by Marcolin and Squicciarini (2018) that, in line with the empirical agenda of our contribution, addresses two main questions: a) how the skill composition of a country's workforce shapes the specialisation and positioning along the global value chain, and b) the way in which GVC specialisation and positioning both determine, and are determined by, investment in selected knowledge-based capital assets, and what this entails for policy. All in all, Marcolin and Squicciarini (2018) confirm the complexity of the interplay between GVC, technology and employment and the difficulty of drawing clear-cut policy implications and guidelines on how to get the most from countries' participation in GVCs. Nonetheless, this contribution has the merit of defining the main issues and relationships at stake, providing relevant hints on the main channels through which technology and knowledge-based assets can shape the GVC-employment relationship.…”

Informality and Globalisation

“…The textiles and clothing trade experienced a dramatic increase between 1994 and 2005, when the importing quotas system for these products (the Multi-fibre Arrangement and the Agreement on Textiles and Clothing) was progressively phased out (Lopez-Acevedo and Robertson, 2012 [80]). Over this period, Asian economies became key players in the industry, particularly in China, where textile exports grew 306% between 1995 and 2005.…”

The Impact of Technology and Globalization on Employment and Equity: An Organizing Framework for Action

“…• The availability, over a long period of time, of relatively inexpensive consumer goods in the US and the marginal rise in the Consumer Price Index between 1990 and 2018 (Statista, 2018) • The optimization of manufacturing costs, lead times, quality, and operational flexibility through the creation of global value chains (Marcolin & Squicciarini, 2017) • The benefits accruing to TNCs of establishing R&D facilities in developing nations (China, India, Brazil) with excellent, low cost human resources and the infrastructure for technology development (Fu, Pietrobelli, & Soete, 2011) • Steady economic growth in North America and the EU, despite the admission of less prosperous countries to the latter Trading Economics, 2019) • The adoption of a free market, free trade regimen in a majority of countries, which was part of the US-led effort to establish a stable geopolitical order .…”