Global Value Chains and Wages : Multi-Country Evidence from Linked Worker-Industry Data

This paper uses a multi-country microeconomic setting to contribute to the literature on the nexus between production fragmentation and wages. Exploiting a rich dataset on over 110,000 workers from nine Eastern and Western European countries and the United States, we study the relationship between individual workers' wages and industry ties into global value chains (GVCs). We find an inverse (but weak) relationship between the degree of industries' involvement in GVCs and wages. Workers employed in routine occupations clearly earn less, but it is difficult to attribute it to the role played by the involvement of their countries and industries in global value chains