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2023

Ibrahim Nana, Martin Paul Jr. Tabe-Ojong

Evolution of Global Value Chains Participation and Economic Growth in Africa

Global value chains offer countries unique opportunities to participate in and benefit from international trade by specializing in specific production stages and tasks. The objective of this study is twofold: (i) to investigate the evolution of African countries participation in global value ch...

2020

Altenburg Tilman, Xiao Chen, Wilfried Lütkenhorst, Cornelia Staritz, and Lindsay Whitfield

Exporting out of China or out of Africa? Automation versus relocation in the global clothing industry

This Discussion Paper examines the opportunities that the rising industrial wages in China will bring for Africa. China has been the industrial workbench of the global economy for decades. However, its competitive advantages are waning, particularly for labour-intensive assembly activities in the cl...

Michele Delera

Is production in global value chains (GVCs) sustainable? A review of the empirical evidence on social and environmental sustainability in GVCs

Sustainability in global value chains (GVCs) hinges on the interplay between specialisation, scale, and efficiency effects. This paper reviews different strands of literature which provide evidence on these channels. The evidence that I collect suggests that the sustainability impacts of GVCs are am...

Meng Li, Bo Meng, Yuning Gao, Zhi Wang, Yaxiong Zhang, Yongping Sun

Tracing CO2 Emissions in Global Value Chains: Multinationals vs. Domestically-owned Firms

This study integrates the new global value chain (GVC) accounting method that explicitly considers the difference in the production functions of multinational enterprises (MNEs) and domestically-owned firms into existing production- and consumption-based CO2 emissions measures. This enables us to co...

Franziska Ollendorf, Goodlet Ansah

Local Cocoa Marketing under Pressure: Sustainability certification and new forms of competition in Ghana’s cocoa industry

In the context of persisting sustainability challenges in the Global Cocoa-Chocolate Chain (GCCC), sustainability certification gained momentum as a major industry response. While much research has been undertaken regarding the effects of certification schemes on farming practices and farmers’ liv...

Kate Macdonald, Rachael Diprose, Janina Grabs, Philip Schleifer, Justin Alger, Bahruddin, Ben Cashore, Paul Cisneros, Deborah Delgado, Rachael Garrett, and William Hopkinson

Jurisdictional Approaches to Sustainable Commodity Governance

Jurisdictional approaches (JAs) have emerged over the past decade as a significant mode of sustainable commodity governance, particularly in tropical forest countries. JAs are characterized by multi-stakeholder initiatives with substantial government involvement, aiming to integrate environmental, s...