When Vietnam started the Doi Moi (renovation) in the mid-1980s it was a backward agricultural country. Liberalising markets, allowing the establishment of private firms, integrating in the world economy and high FDI inflows stimulated growth and productivity development. However, this first face...

The catching-up of countries in the Global South to productivity levels and living standards of the Global North is the exception. There are two main economic explanations for this. First, developing countries are pushed to low-tech-labor-intensive productions and tasks in global value chains....

In the last decades in particular, national governments as well as development agencies and international organizations have increasingly turned to participation in global value chains (GVCs) as a development strategy. However, whether the positive development effects of integration are large...

In traditional trade theory, it is generally assumed that the development of export-oriented industries in the Global South can create the conditions for technological spillover effects, productivity increases and social welfare gains. However, based on the results of comparative case studies in...