IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/oup/cambje/v30y2006i4p507-520.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Low-wage manufacturing and global commodity chains: a model in the unequal exchange tradition

Author

Listed:
  • James Heintz

Abstract

The institutional setting of subcontracted manufacturing has a profound impact on how the benefits of trade are distributed. This paper develops a model that combines insights from unequal exchange theorists and global commodity chain analysis to clarify the distributive dynamics of production networks in which subcontracting and branding are defining features. In this framework, the ability of productivity growth to increase income from exports is constrained and depends on how the benefits of productivity improvements are captured--as lower consumer prices or higher rents for brand-name multinationals. Increasing consumption in affluent consumer markets raises export earnings. However, developing countries, acting alone, are constrained in their ability to affect the demand side of global commodity chains. Instead, supply-side policies to support industrial upgrading represent a more viable option for raising incomes. Copyright 2006, Oxford University Press.

Suggested Citation

  • James Heintz, 2006. "Low-wage manufacturing and global commodity chains: a model in the unequal exchange tradition," Cambridge Journal of Economics, Cambridge Political Economy Society, vol. 30(4), pages 507-520, July.
    • Handle: RePEc:oup:cambje:v:30:y:2006:i:4:p:507-520
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1093/cje/bei095
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Amit Basole, 2014. "Informality and Flexible Specialization: Labour Supply, Wages, and Knowledge Flows in an Indian Artisanal Cluster," Working Papers 2014_07, University of Massachusetts Boston, Economics Department.
    2. Xiang Gao & Geoffrey J D Hewings & Cuihong Yang, 2022. "Offshore, re-shore, re-offshore: what happened to global manufacturing location between 2007 and 2014? [The gravity model]," Cambridge Journal of Regions, Economy and Society, Cambridge Political Economy Society, vol. 15(2), pages 183-206.
    3. Anna Giunta & Domenico Scalera & Annamaria Nifo, 2008. "Divisione del lavoro, crescita e divari di performance nell'industria italiana degli anni '90," Departmental Working Papers of Economics - University 'Roma Tre' 0097, Department of Economics - University Roma Tre.
    4. Uma RANI & Damian GRIMSHAW, 2019. "Introduction: What does the future promise for work, employment and society?," International Labour Review, International Labour Organization, vol. 158(4), pages 577-592, December.
    5. Seguino, Stephanie, 2007. "Is more mobility good?: Firm mobility and the low wage-low productivity trap," Structural Change and Economic Dynamics, Elsevier, vol. 18(1), pages 27-51, March.
    6. Jennifer Bair & Mathew Mahutga & Marion Werner & Liam Campling, 2021. "Capitalist crisis in the “age of global value chainsâ€," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 53(6), pages 1253-1272, September.
    7. Robert A. Blecker, 2012. "Stolper–Samuelson Revisited: Trade And Distribution With Oligopolistic Profits," Metroeconomica, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 63(3), pages 569-598, July.
    8. Anna Giunta & Annamaria Nifo & Domenico Scalera, 2012. "Subcontracting in Italian Industry: Labour Division, Firm Growth and the North--South Divide," Regional Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 46(8), pages 1067-1083, December.
    9. James Heintz, 2014. "Jobs, Justice and Development: A Review of Working Hard, Working Poor," Development and Change, International Institute of Social Studies, vol. 45(4), pages 799-811, July.
    10. William MILBERG & Deborah WINKLER, 2011. "Economic and social upgrading in global production networks: Problems of theory and measurement," International Labour Review, International Labour Organization, vol. 150(3-4), pages 341-365, December.
    11. Frederick Mayer & William Milberg, 2013. "Aid for Trade in a world of global value chains: chain power, the distribution of rents and implications for the form of aid," Global Development Institute Working Paper Series ctg-2013-34, GDI, The University of Manchester.
    12. Amit Basole, 2016. "Informality and Flexible Specialization: Apprenticeships and Knowledge Spillovers in an Indian Silk Weaving Cluster," Development and Change, International Institute of Social Studies, vol. 47(1), pages 157-187, January.
    13. Andrea Ricci, 2016. "Unequal Exchange in International Trade:A General Model," Working Papers 1605, University of Urbino Carlo Bo, Department of Economics, Society & Politics - Scientific Committee - L. Stefanini & G. Travaglini, revised 2016.
    14. Eduardo F Bastian & Mark Setterfield, 2020. "Nominal exchange rate shocks and inflation in an open economy: towards a structuralist inflation targeting agenda," Cambridge Journal of Economics, Oxford University Press, vol. 44(6), pages 1271-1299.
    15. Maciej Grodzicki, 2018. "Prices of Value Added and Competitiveness in Global Value Chains," SPRU Working Paper Series 2018-14, SPRU - Science Policy Research Unit, University of Sussex Business School.
    16. Khan, Haider, 2023. "Ecological Imperialism: A 21st Century Circuits Approach," MPRA Paper 116844, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    17. repec:era:wpaper:dp-2015-51 is not listed on IDEAS
    18. Balazs Vedres & Carl Nordlund, 2017. "Dis-embedded Openness: Inequalities in European Economic Integration at the Sectoral Level," Papers 1711.02626, arXiv.org.
    19. Céline GIMET & Bernard GUILHON & Nathalie ROUX, 2015. "Social upgrading in globalized production: The case of the textile and clothing industry," International Labour Review, International Labour Organization, vol. 154(3), pages 303-327, September.
    20. Satyaki Roy, 2017. "Rent and Surplus in the Global Production Network: Identifying ‘Value Capture’ from the South," Agrarian South: Journal of Political Economy, Centre for Agrarian Research and Education for South, vol. 6(1), pages 32-52, April.
    21. William Milberg, 2007. "WP 2007-9 Shifting Sources and Uses of Profits: Sustaining U.S. Financialization with Global Value Chains," SCEPA working paper series. 2007-9, Schwartz Center for Economic Policy Analysis (SCEPA), The New School.
    22. Shaianne T. Osterreich, 2019. "Gender and Comparative Advantage: Feminist–Heterodox Theorizing about Globalization," Economies, MDPI, vol. 7(2), pages 1-12, May.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:oup:cambje:v:30:y:2006:i:4:p:507-520. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Oxford University Press (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://academic.oup.com/cje .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.