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Economic and social upgrading in global value chains: Analysis of horticulture, apparel, tourism and mobile telephones

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  • Thomas Bernhardt
  • William Milberg

Abstract

We adopt a ‘parsimonious’ 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 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.

Suggested Citation

  • Thomas Bernhardt & William Milberg, 2012. "Economic and social upgrading in global value chains: Analysis of horticulture, apparel, tourism and mobile telephones," Global Development Institute Working Paper Series ctg-2011-06, GDI, The University of Manchester.
    • Handle: RePEc:bwp:bwppap:ctg-2011-06
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    File URL: http://www.capturingthegains.org/pdf/ctg-wp-2011-06.pdf
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    1. 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.
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    8. John Humphrey & Hubert Schmitz, 2002. "How does insertion in global value chains affect upgrading in industrial clusters?," Regional Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 36(9), pages 1017-1027.
    9. Gary Gereffi & Evgeni Evgeniev, 2008. "Textile and Apparel Firms in Turkey and Bulgaria: Exports, Local Upgrading and Dependency," Economic Studies journal, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences - Economic Research Institute, issue 3, pages 148-179.
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    Cited by:

    1. Biswajit Dhar, 2014. "The future of the World Trade Organization," Chapters, in: Richard Baldwin & Masahiro Kawai & Ganeshan Wignaraja (ed.), A World Trade Organization for the 21st Century, chapter 11, pages 316-360, Edward Elgar Publishing.

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