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We distinguish the geographical source and destination of value added contributed by each country-industry to each country-global-value-chain (GVC) from both input sourcing and output destination perspectives. We define indicators that capture the relative intensity of regional vis-à-vis global (i.e., extra-regional) components of foreign value added and employment. Europe is increasingly sourcing value added from within the region ("nearshoring") but exporting value added globally ("farsharing"). European GVCs mostly generate foreign employment outside Europe. In contrast, most of European employment is activated by European GVCs: an important labor market policy implication arguing for more intensive intra-EU trade and integration. Europe and its economic policy should not only focus on the sourcing of value added across production processes, but also on the final demand that generates economic activity in Europe

The chapter proposes the foundations of an analytical framework to identify innovation pathways that lead to inclusive structural change in low- and medium-income countries (LMICs). Innovation pathways depend on how actors, interactions, and conditions affect the origin of innovation; the uptake of the innovations (adoption and diffusion); the impact of this diffusion on upgrading; the extent to which technological upgrading scales up to drive structural change and inclusion; the complementarity among these processes; and the potential trade-offs between structural change and inclusion. After delineating the analytical framework, the chapter focuses on applications of the framework to identify typical trade-offs between inclusion and structural change, and policy options to tackle these trade-offs and achieve outcomes of inclusive structural change. We finally propose a research agenda to build upon the framework and directly inform policies for inclusive structural change. The contribution of this work aims to respond to the recently increasing demand coming from international institutions, inter-departmental research funds, NGOs and national ministries, for improved knowledge to shape a more effective innovation policy for inclusive development in LMICs.

This paper provides empirical evidence on the complex role played by technology in affecting the relationship between the participation of EU countries and industries in Global Value Chains (GVCs) and their employment structure over the period 2000-2014. The empirical analysis is based on country/industry level data for 21 EU countries on employment, trade in value added, patents and investments in intangible assets, and focusses on backward linkages within GVCs. The role of technology is analysed by taking into account both the technological intensity of offshoring industries and that of their GVC partners. We study the employment structure by looking at the shares of managers and manual workers, which reflect the “functional specialisation” of the country-sector within GVCs. We find that pre-existing asymmetries in the functional specialisation are highly persistent over time, with little sign of convergence over our observed period. Furthermore, GVC participation is not related to changes in the employment structure. However, this relationship appears to be mediated by country-industries’ initial technological performance. Technological leader industries exhibit, in fact, larger shares of employment in headquarter functions, and this functional specialisation tends to be strengthened as they increase their integration into GVCs. In contrast, country-industries that start off as technological laggards see integration into GVCs accompanied by an increase in the share of employment in fabrication functions. The technological profile of the partners is also found to play a role in the relationship between GVC integration and the functional specialisation of the offshoring country/industry, although different patterns emerge depending on the nature of the partner (manufacturing vs service).

La edición especial de la Revista CEPAL que presentamos ha sido elaborada en el contexto de la crisis sanitaria ocasionada en 2020 por la propagación de la enfermedad por coronavirus (COVID-19) a escala mundial. Junto con esta pandemia se ha desencadenado también la más aguda crisis económica del capitalismo global desde la Gran Depresión de la década de 1930. En términos más amplios, se trata de una grave crisis humanitaria que ha costado millones de vidas humanas, truncadas por el contagio del virus, así como pérdidas de producción y empleo que se han traducido también en deterioro de las condiciones de bienestar material de vastos segmentos de la población mundial (sobre todo en materia de salud, educación y nutrición) y, por lo mismo, en fuertes retrocesos en materia de pobreza y distribución de los ingresos. En esta sombría escena mundial, América Latina ha resultado ser una de las regiones más afectadas por la pandemia, situación que no es casual en el marco de las asimetrías internas y externas que configuran su disfuncional estilo de desarrollo, patrón que las literaturas estructuralista y neoestructuralista han descrito en numerosos escritos en los que se analiza la dinámica socioeconómica y ambiental de la región en diferentes estadios históricos. UCR::Vicerrectoría de Investigación::Unidades de Investigación::Ciencias Sociales::Instituto de Investigaciones Sociales (IIS)

The Saga: This note selectively unpacks the rapid evolution of the (Western) debate around the opportunity to deploy contact tracing apps, alongside other digital tools such as apps for symptoms sharing and immunity certificates to mitigate the Covid-19 pandemics. I do so from the perspective of a social scientist interested in the implications of the development of digital tools at times of emergency in terms of data governance. I argue that a more articulated reflection is needed towards the development of a healthy institutional structure that regulates the role of large tech platforms, such as Google and Apple (G&A), and public institutions, in governing data, particularly when health data and public value are involved. I unravel the saga of contact tracing apps in the UK and EU, looking at the technical, legal and ethical aspects and I attempt to draw more general lessons for data governance. &nbsp

The Saga: This note selectively unpacks the rapid evolution of the (Western) debate around the opportunity to deploy contact tracing apps, alongside other digital tools such as apps for symptoms sharing and immunity certificates to mitigate the Covid-19 pandemics. I do so from the perspective of a social scientist interested in the implications of the development of digital tools at times of emergency in terms of data governance. I argue that a more articulated reflection is needed towards the development of a healthy institutional structure that regulates the role of large tech platforms, such as Google and Apple (G&A), and public institutions, in governing data, particularly when health data and public value are involved. I unravel the saga of contact tracing apps in the UK and EU, looking at the technical, legal and ethical aspects and I attempt to draw more general lessons for data governance. The Value of Data: This note attempts a systematisation of different pieces of literature that underpin the recent policy and academic debate on the value of data. It mainly poses foundational questions around the definition, economic nature and measurement of data value, and discusses the opportunity to redistribute it. It then articulates a framework to compare ways of implementing redistribution, distinguishing between data as capital, data as labour or data as an intellectual property. Each of these raises challenges, revolving around the notions of data property and data rights, that are also briefly discussed. The note concludes by indicating areas for policy considerations and a research agenda to shape the future structure of data governance more at large.