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Economies
Special Issues
Trade and Investment Policy and Global Value Chains
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Trade and Investment Policy and Global Value Chains

A special issue of Economies (ISSN 2227-7099).

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 December 2020) | Viewed by 10128

Special Issue Editor

Dr. Neil Foster-McGregor

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
UNU-MERIT, Boschstraat 24, 6211 AX Maastricht, The Netherlands
Interests: international trade, economic growth; structural change; innovation and technology; knowledge diffusion

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

The last three decades have witnessed a dramatic increase in the number of preferential trade and investment agreements signed between diverse sets of countries. This expansion is reflected not only in the number of such agreements or the number of countries engaged in these agreements, but also in terms of the breadth of these agreements. Modern preferential trade agreements (PTAs) cover not only traditional trade policy, but also include provisions related to investment, competition, intellectual property rights, standards, labour and the environment amongst others. The geographical scope of PTAs as well as other agreements such as Bilateral Investment Treaties (BITs) has also broadened. Coinciding with these developments, we have also witnessed the rise of Global Value Chains (GVCs), as exemplified by the rising share of intermediate goods in total trade, with intermediate trade accounting for more than two thirds of global trade. Driven by Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) and the activities of large Multinational Corporations (MNCs), this unbundling of the stages of production across national borders creates issues of coordination that can be helped or hindered by policy, and notably trade and investment policy.
In this Special Issue, we want to examine the inter-relationships that exist between trade and investment related policies and GVCs. Examples include the role of PTAs and PTA patterns in driving GVCs patterns, and in influencing the level and positioning of countries within GVCs. Further topics of interest include the role that PTA breadth plays in driving patterns of GVC participation, and in particular the roles of specific provisions in PTAs, such as rules of origin or rules on investment. While these examples are focussed on country level effects, PTAs may also impact upon and be studied at the level of the sector or firm. Questions related to how trade policy impacts upon the organisation of the value chain and whether the rise of GVCs necessitates a new form of trade policy that is more suited to intermediates trade and the unbundling of production remain relevant, therefore. Questions related to the role of policy in attracting inward FDI are also highly relevant for the call.In considering the interrelationships between GVCs and trade and investment policy, we would be happy to receive empirical and theoretical contributions, papers adopting various techniques (e.g. gravity modelling, network economics, general equilibrium modelling), and papers at the macro, meso or micro level.

Dr. Neil Foster-McGregor
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Economies is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. Please refer to https://0-www-mdpi-com.brum.beds.ac.uk/journal/economies/apc for Article Processing Charge (APC). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • trade and investment Policy
  • preferential trade agreements
  • global value chains
  • PTA breadth
  • PTA provisions
  • GVC positioning
  • upgrading

Published Papers (3 papers)

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Research

25 pages, 4743 KiB  
Article
Participating to Compete: Do Small Firms in Developing Countries Benefit from Global Value Chains?
by Mauro Boffa, Marion Jansen and Olga Solleder
Economies 2021, 9(1), 12; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/economies9010012 - 02 Feb 2021
Cited by 7 | Viewed by 3563
Abstract
Standard trade theory suggests that the profile of exporting firms is characterized by large firms which dominate domestic productivity distribution. Large manufacturing multinationals have increased their productivity by participating, creating and shaping global production networks. In recent decades, trade flows have become increasingly [...] Read more.
Standard trade theory suggests that the profile of exporting firms is characterized by large firms which dominate domestic productivity distribution. Large manufacturing multinationals have increased their productivity by participating, creating and shaping global production networks. In recent decades, trade flows have become increasingly dominated by trade-in-tasks within global production networks. Given the importance of pro-competitive effects in establishing the gains from trade following trade liberalizations, it is important to look at the link between participation in global value chains and a firm’s competitiveness. The paper does so by using the International Trade Centre’s competitiveness index, for small, medium-sized and large firms, coupled with global value chain participation measures extracted from multi-regional input-output tables, and together forming a panel dataset at country and firm category level. The main finding establishes that the gains from integration into value chains are greater for small firms than for large firms. In particular, at the sample median, an increase of participation by 2.5% reduces the competitiveness gap between small and large firms by 1.25%. In addition, the analysis suggests that it is the use of foreign inputs that drives the result. In contrast, the domestic value in intermediate goods matters only in cases where value chains respond to domestic demand needs. The identification strategy relies on a fractional probit model allowing for unobserved effects, and a causal framework using the depth of trade agreements as instrument, in order to mitigate potential reverse causality. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Trade and Investment Policy and Global Value Chains)
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12 pages, 257 KiB  
Article
Further Evidence on Import Demand Function and Income Inequality
by Ioanna Konstantakopoulou
Economies 2020, 8(4), 91; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/economies8040091 - 23 Oct 2020
Cited by 5 | Viewed by 3042
Abstract
In advanced economies, rising inequality has become a significant economic issue. Our paper examines one dimension of the impact of inequality. This study employs panel estimators that tackle heterogeneity and cross-sectional dependence to estimate the impact of income inequality on import demand. In [...] Read more.
In advanced economies, rising inequality has become a significant economic issue. Our paper examines one dimension of the impact of inequality. This study employs panel estimators that tackle heterogeneity and cross-sectional dependence to estimate the impact of income inequality on import demand. In addition, we use a Bayesian approach to the cointegrated VAR model as well as a model that allows for stochastic trends and cross-sectional dependence. Annual panel data for the period from 1995 to 2016 on OECD countries are used. The empirical results show that inequality has a positive and significant effect on import demand. The estimation also yields some other expected results, viz. that the income and price elasticity of import demand function are positive and negative, respectively. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Trade and Investment Policy and Global Value Chains)
16 pages, 245 KiB  
Article
On PTAs and Bilateral Trade: Is GVC Trade Sensitive to the Breadth of Trade Policy Cooperation?
by Michele Delera and Neil Foster-McGregor
Economies 2020, 8(4), 84; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/economies8040084 - 15 Oct 2020
Cited by 4 | Viewed by 2864
Abstract
We study the relationship between the scope of trade policy cooperation and bilateral trade flows with a particular focus on global value chain (GVC) trade using data on the core and non-core provisions included in preferential trade agreements (PTAs). We find that broader [...] Read more.
We study the relationship between the scope of trade policy cooperation and bilateral trade flows with a particular focus on global value chain (GVC) trade using data on the core and non-core provisions included in preferential trade agreements (PTAs). We find that broader PTAs have a larger impact on trade flows involving intermediates relative to flows involving all products, suggesting that GVC trade is particularly sensitive to the scope of trade policy cooperation. We also investigate different dimensions of heterogeneity in PTAs. We find that core provisions tend to drive the effect of PTAs on the level of GVC trade and that PTAs are particularly effective in raising the level of GVC trade between developing economies. We explore these issues using a sample of 189 countries over the period 1990–2015, with data obtained from the latest release of the EORA multi-regional input–output tables and UN-COMTRADE data. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Trade and Investment Policy and Global Value Chains)
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