Este documento analiza el papel desempeñado por las cadenas globales de valor (CGV) en el mantenimiento a partir de los años ochenta del paradigma de la producción en masa, relacionando el declive de la participación de las CGV con la fractura de dicho paradigma. En la segunda parte, se analiza el surgimiento del nuevo paradigma tecno-económico de las TIC, concluyendo que, si bien no provocará el colapso de la globalización, sí cambiará su naturaleza. Las finanzas, la inversión, el conocimiento, la tecnología y los valores seguirán difundiéndose a escala mundial, pero la producción se acercará cada vez más al consumo. Pero las cadenas de valor transfronterizas seguirán expandiéndose, y serán predominantemente regionales y no mundiales

This paper analyzes the role played by global value chains (GVCs) in the maintenance of the mass production paradigm from the 1980s onwards, relating the decline in the participation of GVCs to the fracture of this paradigm. The second part analyzes the emergence of the new techno-economic paradigm of ICTs, concluding that, although it will not cause the collapse of globalization, it will change its nature. Finance, investment, knowledge, technology and values will continue to spread globally, but production will move increasingly closer to consumption. But cross-border value chains will continue to expand, and will be predominantly regional rather than global.

The eight invited papers comprising this special section reflect the breadth of Chris Freeman's contributions to understanding the world and his advocacy of using that understanding to making the world a better place. The authors reflect on Freeman's contributions and advocacy with a view to presenting what concepts, frameworks and insights can be carried forward from the centenary of his birth.

This essay begins with a recounting of the rise of the Mass Production techno-economic paradigm and the emergence of the systemic economic crisis in the early 1970s. It then explains how this crisis was stemmed by the deepening of globalisation, which accelerated during the 1980s. However, shortly before the turn of the millennium, the internal fissures of the paradigm became more apparent, resulting in a renewed slowdown in growth and global financial crises. In the context of these global developments, most emerging economies are confronted by two structural problems. The first is the prevalence of a massive informal sector; the second is the erosion of the possibilities for a flying geese policy replicating the export success of China. However, crisis presents both challenge and opportunity, and three sets of innovation opportunities are addressed in the paper. These are the largely unrecognised innovative potential within the informal sector, the possibilities opened up by growing regional and South-South trade, and the transformative potential of the heartland technology driving the new techno-economic paradigm, ICTs. Building on seminal contribution to ideas by Freeman, we argue that these are important pillars to build an innovation agenda for inclusion in developing countries. The essay concludes with a discussion of the main policy implications to maximise the development impact of these new opportunities.

This chapter explores the manner in which the global value chain framework can contribute to an understanding of the distribution of income. The core analytical concepts that further this analysis are various categories of rent and the barriers to entry that protect rents. This is followed by a description of four major distributional trends – in the global interpersonal distribution of income, in the class distribution of income, in the skills distribution of income and in the interfirm distribution of income. These two discussions are then drawn together to illustrate how the global value chain framework provides important insights into the distributional outcomes of global trade.

Trade in manufacturing through global and regional value chains has played an especially prominent role in global economic growth in recent decades. However, Africa faces severe challenges in growing manufacturing activities in the face of China and Southeast Asia’s competitive dominance of global manufactured product markets. Traditionally, global trade is heavily concentrated at the corporate level. But this reliance on large firms as a driver of trade is problematic for Africa given its need for a more inclusive synergistic trade and economic growth path that is more employment intensive, more decentralised and which provides scope for enhanced activities by indigenous and small-scale industry. This is not to argue for the exclusion of large firms or foreign direct investment in economic growth, but rather to argue the case for an increased presence of indigenous small-scale firms in the economy and in export trade. There is evidence of dynamism in Africa, both within individual Small- and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs) and in clusters of SMEs. In understanding the challenges faced by this sector, and in examining the prospects for their participation in external trade, we review the experience of 25 African clusters using four dimensions: the nature of unintended externalities (e.g., external economies), market orientation and upgrading and growth trajectories, cluster dynamism and joint action for upgrading, external institutional support and upgrading. In terms of policy challenges for SMEs and export trade we discuss four major areas: (i) participation in governed global value chains feeding into high-income markets, (ii) export sales to non-regional low-income markets, (iii) export sales to regional markets and (iv) informal sector cross-border trade to regional economies. We conclude that for Africa, trade and industrialisation are integrally linked and attempts to facilitate regional trade policies cannot ignore the need for developing appropriate industrial policy and adopting an approach of developmental regionalism. This is especially evident with respect to SME development.

This paper addresses the generation of rents and the distribution of gains in the global operations of governed Global Value Chains (GVCs) and seeks to provide an architecture for analyzing the governance of GVCs. It distinguishes between four sets of rent—gifts of nature; innovation rents; exogenously defined rents; and market power—and three spheres of governance—setting the rules -“legislative governance”; implementing the rules -“executive governance”; and monitoring rules and sanctioning malfeasance -“judicial governance.” The exercise of governance power in GVCs over the generation, protection and appropriation of rents is considered though the lens of four sets of key GVC stakeholders—the corporate sector, civil society organizations, the nation state and supranational institutions. This general analysis is given flesh through three case studies: food-safety standards in GVCs; taxation policies and competition policies. In these sectors, the corporate sector is generally much more effective in governing rent generation and appropriation in the global operations of GVCs than are the three sets of non-corporate stakeholders. From this observation we offer a hypothesis that the capacity of non-corporate stakeholders, including national states, to govern GVCs is contingent upon the extent to which this coincides with the interest of the corporate sector. However, as noted, this balance of power between private and non-corporate actors is a contested terrain and dynamic in nature.

Below the radar: What does innovation in the asian driver economies have to offer other low income economies Other How to cite: Clark, Norman; Chataway, Joanna; Hanlin, Rebecca; Kale, Dinar; Kaplinsky, Raphael; Muraguri, Lois; Papaioannou, Theo; Robbins, Peter and Wamae, Watu (2009). Below the radar: What does innovation in the asian driver economies have to offer other low income economies. Economic and Social Research Council.

Regulations and standards have become an increasingly important factor affecting the capacity of producers to participate in global markets. Directly and indirectly, they not only determine the terms of market-entry but also affect the extent to which different producers are able to position themselves in global value chains in a manner which provides for socially and environmentally sustainable income growth. Standards compliance can enhance producer capabilities and assist in meeting many of the SDG objectives. But it may also involve trade-offs between different SDG goals. Standards compliance is simultaneously inclusive (facilitating the participation of low and middle income countries producers in global production and spreading incomes more widely globally) and exclusive (barring small producers from market access and displacing unskilled labour from supply chains). What policy measures will best lead to the most positive outcomes as standards diffuse through global value chains?

This article introduces a Special Section addressing technology diffusion as a result of south–south trade in capital goods; taking forward, and updating, arguments from the appropriate technology literature in the 1970s and 1980s. We review capital goods utilised in three sectors of considerable development significance in low- and middle-income economies (agricultural mechanisation in Tanzania, furniture in Kenya and apparel in Uganda). In each sector, southern-origin equipment is distinctive by comparison with northern-origin capital goods. At observed capacity utilisation rates, southern-origin capital goods are economically efficient, accessible and profitable to users, and demonstrably appropriate to operating conditions in these three economies. As a consequence, not only are Chinese-origin capital goods diffusing rapidly in these three economies, but so too are they diffusing in other developing economies. Chinese-origin capital goods now account for almost one-third of all capital goods imports in Africa, Latin America and South-East Asia, and Indian equipment is also widely utilised in many low- and middle-income economies. This suggests a wider significance of our findings and calls for policymakers to harness the opportunities provided by market-driven south–south trade in capital goods.

This paper begins with a discussion of the role played by upgrading in the promotion of sustainable growth. Upgrading is discussed in two different contexts, that of industrial clusters and that of global value chains (GVCs). Drawing on global and African experiences, the paper addresses the upgrading agenda required to enable dynamic clusters to meet both domestic needs and progressively also needs in external markets. In the discussion of value chains, the paper distinguishes between vertically specialised and additive GVCs and shows how the upgrading agenda necessarily varies between these two families of GVCs. The paper concludes by briefly discussing two issues. The first is to distinguish between the upgrading agenda which is essential for sustaining economic growth and that which addresses the inclusivity (and thus sustainability) of the growth path. The second addresses the circumstances in which it may be possible to pursue these varied upgrading strategies simultaneously.

This paper begins with a discussion of the role played by upgrading in the promotion of sustainable growth. Upgrading is discussed in two different contexts, that of industrial clusters and that of global value chains (GVCs). Drawing on global and African experiences, the paper addresses the upgrading agenda required to enable dynamic clusters to meet both domestic needs and progressively also needs in external markets. In the discussion of value chains, the paper distinguishes between vertically specialised and additive GVCs and shows how the upgrading agenda necessarily varies between these two families of GVCs. The paper concludes by briefly discussing two issues. The first is to distinguish between the upgrading agenda which is essential for sustaining economic growth and that which addresses the inclusivity (and thus sustainability) of the growth path. The second addresses the circumstances in which it may be possible to pursue these varied upgrading strategies simultaneously.

Effective insertion into global export markets offers the potential for sustainable income growth. However, inappropriate positioning in global markets may well lead to immiserising growth. The key to achieving the beneficial outcome lies in the capacity to identify, appropriate and protect rents, and in the context of intense global competition, to develop the capacity to master dynamic capabilities in order to generate rents on a sustainable basis. This rent policy agenda is necessarily contextual. We argue that the current temporal context is one in which an increasing share of global trade occurs within global value chains (GVCs), and that this is widely recognised. Less widely recognised (and we believe that this is the value added in this article) is the key sectorial distinction between vertically specialised GVCs and additive GVCs. These two families of GVCs require different corporate strategies and different forms of policy support. We refer to the two strategic agendas as 'thinning' (in the case of vertically specialised GVCs) and 'thickening' (in the case of additive GVCs). The additive GVCs tend to be relatively more important in low-and middle-income economies, particularly in Africa and Latin America and parts of South and East Asia. Critically, since effective policy support applies to the agricultural, resource, manufacturing and services sectors (and to the interconnections between them), we argue that 'industrial policy' is a misnomer, and instead we conceive of the policy agenda as one that addresses the productive sector'.