This paper exploits China’s accession to the WTO to investigate the propagation of a supply shock across the Indian production network. Consistent with a model of multi-product manufacturers gaining access to higher-quality components, a fall in input tariffs raises revenue, quality and prices...

During 1985-2015, globalization intensified the factor-endowment-related pattern of sectoral specialization. In skill-abundant developed countries, manufacturing became more skill-intensive. In land-scarce developing East Asia, labour-intensive manufacturing expanded, especially in China. In...

eBusiness-Standards ermöglichen die reibungslose inner- und überbetriebliche Kommunikation und sind damit die Enabler der Digitalisierung. Auch wenn Standards eingesetzt werden, kann es bei nicht flächendeckenden und interoperablen Standardeinsatz zu Friktionen kommen, etwa wenn eine...

Structural transformation is one of the processes of productivity growth urgently needed in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). This study uses the catch-up mechanism to analyze how international contacts and domestic absorptive capacity constraints are shaping the pattern of structural transformation in...

Der Erfolg der digitalen Transformation hängt entscheidend von der Verfügbarkeit globaler Standards ab. Um ohne Friktionen zu kommunizieren, brauchen alle Elemente eines Netzwerks eine gemeinsame Sprache, die sich in Standards bei Prozess- und Produktstammdaten äußert. Ohne Standards muss...

Global value chains (GVCs) have been a vehicle for job creation in developing Asia, but there is mounting concern that more sophisticated and cost-effective technology could displace workers through automation or reshoring of production. We use the demand-based input-output approach in Reijnders...

We construct a novel plant-level dataset to examine the process of technology adoption during a period of rapid technological change: The diffusion of mechanized cotton spinning during the Industrial Revolution in France. We document new stylized facts that can help explain why major...

Understanding how and why economies structurally transform as they grow is crucial for making sound national policy decisions. Typically, analysts who study this issue focus on sectoral shares of gross domestic product and employment. This paper extends those studies to include exports,...

The scholarship on Global Value Chains is very recently recognising the increasing importance of fragmentation of production that involves services – and in particular business services – offshoring. A predominant stand by scholars emerges in this embryonic domain (Blinder, 2006; Gereffi and...

The Information Technology Agreement (ITA), a pluri-lateral trade agreement, seeks to accelerate and deepen the reduction of trade barriers for the critically important information and communication technology (ICT) industry. ITA thus provides an interesting case study of how tariff reduction...