2.1 Definition and concept
The term value chain, created by Michael Porter in his book “Competitive advantage”, comes from the theories of management and business organizations. It covers the different production activities of a good or a service within a company. This concept is therefore part of a systematic approach that aims at analyzing the specific activities by which companies can create value, and generate a competitive advantage in order to identify the steps that contribute most significantly to their profit margin (Brulhart and al., 2015).
With the development of international trade and the internationalization of firms, a country’s trade is no longer restricted to the national level only, but is replaced by a fragmentation of the production process over several countries. We call these networks the Global Value Chains (GVCs). Thus, this notion of value chain refers to important themes which are globalization and international division of labor (IDT). Various tasks along the production chain can be fragmented between companies across the globe, depending on the respective comparative advantages of different countries (African Development Bank and al., 2014). This implies that a country’s participation in GVCs is dictated by economic fundamentals, but public policies are important to increase this participation and broaden their corresponding benefits (World Bank, 2019).
Therefore, the traditional measure of international trade may no longer be sufficient. Several works are trying to remove the effect of double counting induced by global value chains, by measuring international trade in terms of added value rather than gross trade flows. This method will allow us to determine the added value flows created by countries during the production of exported goods and services. For example, in terms of gross exports, the German exports exceeded the USA’s by almost 40% in 2009, but by only 10% in terms of added value (OECD, 2014). This concept has been simplified by describing the pattern of trade between three countries A, B and C, where country A exports goods entirely produced on its territory for $ 100, to country B which perfects them, before exporting them to country C where they will be consumed. B adds $ 10 in value to these goods and therefore exports $ 110 to C. According to traditional indicators, the total commercial value of all exports and imports is $ 210, while only $ 110 of added value was generated during the production of these goods. Consequently, the measurement of trade in added value also modifies bilateral trade balances. For instance, China’s trade surplus with the United States in 2009 decreases by 60 billion USD (one third), when calculated using added value (OECD, 2014).
2.2 GVC integration forms
Integration into a global value chain means that a country becomes part of an international production network in which intermediate goods come from many different places, and are assembled in a third country(African Development Bank and al., 2014). Measuring foreign trade in terms of value added indicates the countries level of integration upstream or downstream at the GVC.
Upstream integration represents the share of foreign added value in a country’s exports. "This consists in studying the importance of foreign factors in local production” (De Baker and Miroudot, 2013; López González and Holmes, 2011; OCDE, 2013). While downstream integration represents the share of a country’s added value exports incorporated in the exports of other countries. The figure below illustrates the upstream and downstream integration.
A country’s position in a global value chain can define expected return from that chain. Hence, "Activities such as research and development or design, along with certain services, create more added value than assembly” (OECD, 2013).
2.3 GVC and the economic development
International trade expanded rapidly after 1990 thanks to the expansion of global value chains (GVCs). "The emergence of these new production models has made counterproductive, the trade policies that encourage exports and restrict imports”(OECD, 2014). Thus, global value chains are transforming world trade, since imports are no longer seen as a "sign of weakness”.
Nowadays, traditional foreign trade is no longer considered as an engine of economic development or even an indicator of the rigidity of the production structure. Since the 2008 global financial crisis, and the coronavirus pandemic, trade growth has been sluggish and the expansion of GVCs has slowed. Similarly, trade conflicts between large countries could lead to a contraction in trade or a segmentation of GVCs (World Bank, 2019).
In this context, economies that aim to integrate GVCs must analyze the positive or negative spillovers from such a policy to determine how to benefit from it in terms of growth, employment and income. For these reasons, GVCs must be more inclusive in order to confer increased benefits to developing countries (WTO). The cases of China, Costa Rica, Mexico, the Czech Republic, and Thailand show that countries’ participation in GVCs can accelerate development and industrialization (OECD, 2014).
2.3.1 GVC and economic growth
The emergence of value chains has far-reaching implications for developing countries’ policies on economic growth. Thereby, integration into a GVC, which is generally associated with openness to new production networks, large world markets, foreign capital, know-how and technologies, is often the first step to move along a sustainable development path. In addition, developing economies can open their markets to Foreign direct investment and strengthen local firms’ capacity to intervene in international trade (OECD, 2014). Thus, the GVC participation is important for economic development, even the ability of countries to prosper depends on the level of their integration into these production networks (Gereffi and Lee, 2012).
From an economic point of view, « The correlation between GVC participation and growth in local added value in exports was stronger in the 2000s than in the 1990s; this suggests that global value chains are gaining importance in world trade » (African Development Bank and al., 2014). Similarly, the works of Hummels, Ishii and Yi (2001), show that global value chains are largely behind most of the world trade growth between 1970 and 1990. The works of Baldwin and Lopez-Gonzales (2013), show that this growth accelerated further in 1995–2009. Montalbano and al. (2018) confirm the positive relationship between participation in international activities and business performance, emphasizing that the position in global value chains is also important. Thus, growth is generally higher when countries move from the export of basic products to the export of simple manufactured products (clothing, for example) like Bangladesh, Cambodia and Viet Nam (World Bank, 2019). In fact, through their participation in a value chain, countries and companies can acquire new capacities that allow them to move upmarket, and increase their added value share in global value chain.
A study by Raei and al. (2019) shows that participation in global value chains are positively correlated to per capita income (see Figure 2). But despite this, these correlations do not identify how participation in global value chains can have an impact on countries’ per capita income. However, Kummritz (2016) shows that an increase in global value chains participation leads to an increase in domestic added value, but the effect is only significant for middle- and high-income countries.
Yet, most of the created value is captured by companies that own the intellectual assets behind the creation of value: brands, patents, designs and models, and also organizational and distribution networks. Some emerging economies are therefore seeking to intensify investments in these types of assets to increase the created value in GVCs and then develop their own value chains. Consequently, integration into global value chains is not a quick fix for achieving economic development (OECD, 2014). A study by World Economic Forum (2013) reveals that GDP could increase by 4.7 % and exports by 14.5% if each country improves its border administration as well as its transport and communication infrastructure.
Recent studies show that diversification and exports’ sophistication is an essential condition for boosting growth and promoting foreign trade (Lotfi and Karim, 2017, 2016a, 2016b). These studies also show that building a sustainable and inclusive economic model cannot be achieved without progressing towards increasingly sophisticated products. But the transitions between each level of export sophistication is always accompanied with increased demands on skills, connectivity and regulatory institutions (World Bank, 2019). This works in favor of productive structural transformation for developing countries. Nevertheless, it’s important to point out that countries with an efficient judiciary system export more, then move easily to more sophisticated sectors (OECD, 2014).
2.3.2 GVC and productivity
The emergence of GVCs challenges some conceptions of globalization economic impacts, but confirms others. One of the main impacts of GVCs is their role in enhancing growth and productivity (OECD, 2014). In Ethiopia, for example, companies participating in GVCs are more than twice as productive as those limited to traditional trade. Likewise, productivity has increased in countries like Bangladesh, China and Viet Nam, which have become more integrated in GVCs (World Bank, 2019). This study shows that generally a 1% increase of this participation increases the per capita income by more than 1%, while traditional trade increases it by only 0.2%. Accordingly, productivity growth rates at the national and firm levels serve as a standard indicator of economic development.
The globalization effects on productivity are the result of additional efficiencies generated by international competition, reorganizing the activity of a company and economies of scale. In addition, participation in GVCs can improve productivity by making easier to access cheaper or higher quality intermediate inputs (OECD, 2014).
New evidence also reveals how trade liberalization can raise the Productivity level in downstream manufacturing firms (Arnold and al., 2016). Baldwin and Yan (2014) found that the productivity of Canadian companies that integrated GVC increased by more than 5% compared to other national companies in the first year, and by 9% four years later. Contrariwise, companies leaving a GVC, lost 1% of productivity in the first year, and 8% during 4-year (Augier and al., 2019).
2.3.3. GVC and employment
Economic development and social development must progress in parallel, which means that it must be accompanied by an increase in employment and improved working conditions. According to a study by World Bank (2019), GVCs can improve the quality of jobs, but their relationship to total employment is complex.
As shown above, companies integrated into GVCs are generally more productive, which allows them to mobilize less labor in their manufacturing process. In this context, a series of OECD studies show that « economic globalization has so far had little or no effect on total employment » and « that there is no systematic correlation between the degree to which countries are open to trade and their unemployment rates » (OECD, 2014). Thus, these works conclude that total employment level is determined more by long-term labor force growth, economic variables, and labor market authorities, than by globalization. These same conclusions have been confirmed by the work of African development bank and al. (2014) in the case of African countries. These studies have shown that "African countries find it difficult to advance employment solely by relying on participation in global value chains; to do this they must increase the local added value content of their exports”.. In other words, employment has only increased in countries where participation in GVCs increased significantly local added value in exports.
However, even if participation in GVCs does not automatically affect total employment, it has effects on its composition. "The offshoring of some production stages within a global value chain usually involves more labor-intensive processes, leading to a decline in corresponding employment. But offshoring also leads to increased productivity and competitiveness in other activities, leading to employment growth that can compensate for job losses caused by offshoring”. So, the total level of employment can be maintained but its composition may change, "as newly created jobs often require higher skills than those required for lost jobs” (OECD, 2014). As a result, GVCs are accompanied by structural transformation in developing countries, resulting from a labor transfer from less productive activities to more productive activities in manufacturing and services industries (World Bank, 2019). In addition, several studies show that GVC is associated with better working conditions.
Finally, overvalued exchange rates and restrictive labour regulations increase the labour cost and thus prevent countries from taking advantage of them.