The recent large and rapid slowdown in economic activity has resulted in even larger and more rapid declines in international trade. As world trade is set to rebound, this paper addresses three questions: (i) Will trade volumes rebound in a symmetric fashion as world economic growth rebounds?...

Global value chains (GVCs) are international systems of production, typically governed by lead firms who coordinate elaborate networks of suppliers. The economic crisis has had a magnified effect on trade because of the prominence of GVC-based trade. This paper explores the role of GVCs in the...

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...

Aid for Trade is widely heralded as a success in promoting increased trade by developing countries. Increased trade, however, does not automatically translate into greater prosperity for workers or local communities. In a world characterized by global value chains (GVCs) in which large lead...

With the steady growth of global value chains (GVCs), each country's trade now has a more complex relationship with the international division of labor. We decompose the employment effects of a country's trade into five components, specifically the labour content (1) in exports, (2) in imports,...