Abstract Many low-income countries (LICs) are integrated into apparel global value chains (GVCs) through foreign direct investment (FDI). This is also the case in Lesotho, which developed into the largest Sub-Sahara African (SSA) apparel exporter to the US under the African Growth and...

Abstract Over the past decade, several Sub-Saharan African (SSA) countries have developed or expanded export-oriented apparel industries in the context of the Multi-Fibre Arrangement (MFA) quotas and preferential market access, most importantly under the African Growth and Opportunity Act...

Standards have become an increasingly important dimension in global trade. Without the capacity to meet the growing body of standards, producers may either have difficulty in entering global markets, or be relegated to unprofitable and low-margin niches. This paper overviews the history of...

Rapid economic growth in China has boosted its demand for commodities. At the same time, many commodity sectors have experienced declining demand from high-income northern economies. This paper examines two hypotheses of the consequences of this shift in final markets for the organization of...

Rapid growth in many low-income economies was fuelled by the insertion of producers into global value chains feeding into high-income northern markets. This paper charts the evolution of financial and economic crisis in the global economy and argues that the likely outcome will be sustained...

This paper examines the evolution of the capitalist labor process. The inherited Fordist structure involves the specialization and deskilling of work, the standardization of output, and the application of F. W. Taylor's top-down managerial approach. Through a case study of the Japanese car...

This paper examines trends in the unit prices of manufactured imports into the European Union (EU) in the period 1988--2002. This is undertaken at a high level of disaggregation, and it is this decomposition which we believe has important implications both for a range of bodies of economic...