BC3 Seminar: “Global Value Chain Analysis”

BC3 Seminars
“Global Value Chain Analysis”

 Prof. Erik Dietzenbacher

Faculty of Economics and Business

University of Groningen

The Netherlands

Abstract

International fragmentation has led to the slicing up of the production chain into ever smaller parts. Countries specialize in tasks and goods and services are transferred abroad as input for the next step in the production process. The key difference with a couple of decades ago is the enormous amount of trade in intermediate products. The consequence is that our measurements, and in particular how we interpret our measurements, are no longer the same. Because one country’s emissions are embodied in its exports to another country’s production process which delivers its goods to a third country’s consumers, territorial emissions do no longer reflect countries’ responsibilities. The central question becomes: “Who emits how much for whom?” The same applies to the standard trade statistics with imports and exports. In the past, it was the case that the exports of a country adequately reflected that this was also value that was created in this country. Due to trade in intermediates, this is no longer the case. The central question thus becomes: “Who works how much for whom?” These are two central questions that require a new metric (i.e. a system of measurements). Global multiregional input-output tables in connection with the global value chain approach have led to a wealth of footprints that can answer our questions and measure what we would like to know.