Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/185505 
Authors: 
Year of Publication: 
2018
Series/Report no.: 
CESifo Working Paper No. 7307
Publisher: 
Center for Economic Studies and ifo Institute (CESifo), Munich
Abstract: 
Many of the exports of developing countries are channeled through global value chains (GVCs), which also act as conduits for new technologies. However, new capabilities and productive employment remain limited so far to a tiny sliver of globally integrated firms. GVCs and new technologies exhibit features that limit the upside and may even undermine developing countries’ economic performance. In particular, new technologies present a double whammy to low-income countries. First, they are generally biased towards skills and other capabilities. This bias reduces the comparative advantage of developing countries in traditionally labor-intensive manufacturing (and other) activities, and decreases their gains from trade. Second, GVCs make it harder for low-income countries to use their labor cost advantage to offset their technological disadvantage, by reducing their ability to substitute unskilled labor for other production inputs. These are two independent shocks that compound each other. The evidence to date, on the employment and trade fronts, is that the disadvantages may have more than offset the advantages.
Subjects: 
GVCs
economic development
international trade
JEL: 
O33
O40
Document Type: 
Working Paper
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