The evolution analysis of agricultural global value chains

With the Uruguay Round bringing agricultural trade into multilateral regulation,the major countries have actively participated in agricultural global value chains(AGVC)and occupied an important position according to their comparative advantages.Utilizing bilateral agricultural trade data of 66 countries based on the OECD Inter-Country-Input-Output Tables(OECD ICIO)from 2010 to 2018,this study applies social network analysis indicators to measure each country’s eigenvector centrality within AGVC and to examine the current global agricultural trade patterns,with particular attention to the changes in the status of world powers within AGVC.The main findings are as follows:first,with the multilateral and regional trade liberalization,growing numbers of developing nations,including China and India,are engaging in international agricultural trade,which contributes to its diversification;second,as AGVC develops,the structure of global agricultural trade networks has become more decentralized and balanced.This is evidenced by the emergence of additional central nodes,and large nations like the United States,which formerly held the most central position as indicated by a drop in its centrality,are becoming less dominant.

Cross-border Urban Networks Based on Manufacturing Global Value Chain:A Study of Listed Companies in Western China

Cross-border investment is essential for western China’s globalization.Global value chain(GVC)forms cross-border investment networks between industries in western China and overseas cities.Focusing on GVC,this study uses the social network analysis method,entropy method,multi-index comprehensive evaluation method,and quadratic assignment procedure analysis method to examine the characteristics and influencing factors of the urban networks of research and development(R&D),production,and sales formed as a result of the overseas investments of listed manufacturing companies in western China.Results showed that the three types of investment networks involved multiple industry types and multiple central cities with differentiated diversity and multicentrality.The R&D urban network’s leading sub-industries were the mechanical equipment and instruments,medicine and biological products,and metal and nonmetal industries.The destination cities were mostly those home to educational and scientific research centers.The production urban network’s leading sub-industries were the mechanical equipment,instrument,and food and beverage industries.The destination cities were mostly regional central cities in developing countries.The sales urban network’s leading sub-industries were the mechanical equipment and instrument,metal and nonmetal,and petrochemical and plastics industries.The destination cities were numerous and scattered.In addition,the R&D urban network easily formed specialized clusters,core nodes easily controlled the production urban network,and individual nodes did not easily control the sales urban network.Technological and economic system advantages greatly impacted the three network types.Considering the different influencing factors,this study suggests optimizing the institutional investment environment to narrow the institutional gap,adjusting and optimizing the investment layout to expand overseas markets,and increasing R&D funds to stimulate technological progress and overseas investments in western China.

Production Chain Length and PPI-CPI Divergence:Analysis Based on the Global Input-output Price Model

Productivity and international energy price shocks are reflected in PPI and CPI via industrial chains.China’s in-depth participation into the global value chains has increasingly lengthened its industrial production chains.The question is how the changing length of production chains will affect CPI and PPI,as well as CPI-PPI correlation?By constructing a global input-output price model,this paper offers a theoretical discussion on the impact of production chain length on the CPI-PPI divergence.Our findings suggest that the price shock of international bulk commodities has a greater impact on China’s PPI than that on CPI.The effects on both China’s PPI and CPI estimated by using the single-country input-output model are higher than the results estimated with the global input-output model.However,the difference between CPI and PPI variations estimated with the global input-output model is greater than the result estimated with the single-country input-output model,which supports the view that the lengthening of production chains,especially international production chains,leads to a divergence between CPI and PPI.Empirical results based on cross-national panel data also suggest that the lengthening of production chains has reduced the CPI-PPI correlation for countries,i.e.the lengthening of production chains has increased the PPI-CPI divergence.That is to say,policymakers should target not just CPI in maintaining price stability,but instead focus on the stability of both PPI and CPI.Efforts can be made to proactively adjust the price index system,and formulate the industrial chain price index.

Global Value Chain Restructuring:Challenges,Opportunities and Strategies for China

Global value chains(GVCs)have entered a new stage of restructuring characterized by trends towards localization,regionalization and diversification.These trends can be attributed to the evolution of the international division,irrational responses to crisis shocks,and trade protectionism.In this context,China’s industrial and supply chain upgrades face both opportunities and challenges which require navigating the adverse effects of industrial re-shoring,unfair technology competition,and changes in the global industrial layout.Yet,such challenges may create pressures for China to accelerate innovation,overcome the low-end lock-up effect by creating regional value chains,and broaden international cooperation.China needs to explore an effective strategy to defuse risks and seize opportunities.On one hand,China should influence the restructuring of GVCs evolution and strengthen its supply chains by playing an active role in economic globalization and the international division.On the other hand,China should proactively respond to GVCs restructuring amid rising trade protectionism,defuse risks from trade protectionism by opening wider to the outside world,and strive to upgrade industrial and supply chains while enhancing the security and stability of their nation.

Spatial Interaction Between the Industrial Undertaking Capacity and Global Value Chain Position of East Asian Countries

A comprehensive understanding of the spatial interaction between the industrial undertaking capability and the position of the global value chain of the 12 East Asian countries is conducive to strengthening regional cooperation, gaining a say in foreign trade and becoming the dominant player in the global division of labor system. The article reveals the operating rules of the interaction between the industrial undertaking capacity and the global value chain position of East Asian countries by calculating the Global Moran Index(Moran’s I), coupling coordination degree and other indicators. The results show that: in time, the values of industrial undertaking capacity and the positions of global value chain in East Asian countries showed a sustained and stable growth trend, and have a consistent trend of change. Spatially, both of the two indexes had significant positive spatial correlation, with Moran’s I showing an ‘inverted U’pattern, and the spatial aggregation distribution of global value chain position lagged behind the spatial aggregation distribution of industrial undertaking capacity by one year. In terms of spatial coupling coordination, the coupling coordination values of the two indicators show a steady upward trend. Combined with the comparative advantage of each country, this paper provides suggestions for promoting the positions of Chinese and other East Asian industries in the global value chain from the perspectives of enhancing independent innovation capability and upgrading industrial structure.

Does strict environmental regulation enhance the global value chains position of China's industrial sector?

Given the vital importance of global value chains(GVCs)position for a country's international competitiveness,this paper tries to investigate the impacts of environmental regulation on the GVCs position of China's industrial sector.Using the latest value-added decomposition method,we first measure the GVCs position of China's industrial sector from 2003 to 2014.Subsequently,both two-stage least squares(2 SLS)method with panel data and mediating effect model are employed to empirically examine the effects of environmental regulation on China's position in GVCs.The results indicate that environmental regulation has significantly upgraded the GVCs position of China's industrial sector,and the effect is more evident for the sub-sectors with originally lower GVCs position.The mediation effect test shows that increasing R&D investment is an important channel through which environmental regulation affects the GVCs position of China's industrial sector,which verifies the existence of the Porter hypothesis.Further analysis finds that the enhancement of GVCs position of China's industrial sector caused by environmental regulation is mainly achieved through reducing the backward GVCs position.

Effects of Global Value Chain Position on the Carbon Emissions of Manufacturing Industry in China: An Empirical Study Based on the STIRPAT Model

Based on the input-output data from the World Input-Output Database( WIOD),the global value chain( GVC) position of China's manufacturing industry from 2003 to 2014 was calculated,and the relationship between the carbon emissions and global value chain position of China's manufacturing industry was studied based on the improved STIRPAT model. The results show that the improvement of global value chain position could significantly reduce the carbon emissions of China's manufacturing industry. In addition,foreign investment and energy structure hindered the low-carbon development of China's manufacturing industry. The effects of population size and research intensity on the carbon emissions of manufacturing industry were not significant. In the process of participating in the global value chain,China's manufacturing industry should effectively reduce carbon emissions by strengthening environmental regulation,optimizing energy structure and improving production technology.

Re-Evaluation of China＇s Service Trade Competitiveness： A Global Value Chain Perspective

Based on the Worm Input-Output Database （WIOD）, this paper conducts a forward-linkage decomposition of value-added in trade to estimate China＇s service value-added exports and its service sector＇s international competitiveness during 2000- 2014. Result indicates that during the sample period, China＇s service exports measured by forward-linkage decomposition method accounted for around 35% in its total export. While the value of services exported directly through the service sector accounted for a falling share, the value of services exported through other sectors represented an increasing share. China ranks second in the world in terms of market share of service exports. However, the revealed comparative advantage （RCA） of China＇s service exports and export sophistication remains limited.

The Impact of Outsourcing on Local Industry Upgrading: a Case of China from a Global Value Chain Perspective

This paper develops a conceptual model to assess effect of outsourcing by integrating the theories of industrial upgrading and global value chain (GVC) governance. Contrary to the widely accepted perception that outsourcing is expected to generate positive spillover in particular, the findings indicate that outsourcing has different effects in different GVC governance modes. Excess outsourcing could structurally inhibit technology and management spillovers to subcontractors within the emerging economy context. Based on a case study of the Chinese textile and apparel (T & A) industry, it is found that the Chinese T & A industry has been trapped in the captive governance relationship with foreign buyers, and at the same time is capped below the function upgrading level. Consequences of the situation and implication are then discussed.

Parameterless Pruning Algorithms for Similarity-Weight Network and Its Application in Extracting the Backbone of Global Value Chain

Purpose:With the availability and utilization of Inter-Country Input-Output(ICIO)tables,it is possible to construct quantitative indices to assess its impact on the Global Value Chain(GVC).For the sake of visualization,ICIO networks with tremendous low-weight edges are too dense to show the substantial structure.These redundant edges,inevitably make the network data full of noise and eventually exert negative effects on Social Network Analysis(SNA).In this case,we need a method to filter such edges and obtain a sparser network with only the meaningful connections.Design/methodology/approach:In this paper,we propose two parameterless pruning algorithms from the global and local perspectives respectively,then the performance of them is examined using the ICIO table from different databases.Findings:The Searching Paths(SP)method extracts the strongest association paths from the global perspective,while Filtering Edges(FE)method captures the key links according to the local weight ratio.The results show that the FE method can basically include the SP method and become the best solution for the ICIO networks.Research limitations:There are still two limitations in this research.One is that the computational complexity may increase rapidly while processing the large-scale networks,so the proposed method should be further improved.The other is that much more empirical networks should be introduced to testify the scientificity and practicability of our methodology.Practical implications:The network pruning methods we proposed will promote the analysis of the ICIO network,in terms of community detection,link prediction,and spatial econometrics,etc.Also,they can be applied to many other complex networks with similar characteristics.Originality/value:This paper improves the existing research from two aspects,namely,considering the heterogeneity of weights and avoiding the interference of parameters.Therefore,it provides a new idea for the research of network backbone extraction.

China's Position in Global Value Chains Compared with the EU,U.S.and Japan

By creating a five-country I-O model of China, EU, US, Japan and other countries, this paper decomposes gross export into nine parts and investigates the GVC positions and competitiveness of China and the other three economies for different sectors using real domestic trade in value-added and GVC position indices. In addition, valueadded trade is taken into consideration to identify the labor division characteristics of the four economies in the GVC, which led to the following findings: China participates primarily in the single links of the GVC at the downstream yet shows a significant tendency to move upstream in technology-intensive sectors; Japan participates primarily in the single links of the GVC at the upstream and boasts an advantage in technology-intensive sectors; the US participates in the multiple links of the GVC at the upstream with superiority in hightechnology sectors; the EU participates in the production and export of intermediate goods and final goods at both ends.

Global Value Chain Embeddedness,Knowledge Spillovers,and Clustered Firms' Innovation Performance

Empirical evidence of the effects of global value chain( GVC) embeddedness on clustered firms' innovation is presented in this paper. The intermediary roles of the two types of knowledge spillover( explicit and implicit) in GVC embeddedness and clustered firms' innovation are considered, and the effects of structure embeddedness,relationship embeddedness,and acknowledgement embeddedness on clustered firms' innovation are examined. Analysis is based on the sample of 134 export-oriented firms from the Shaoxing industrial cluster in Zhejiang province of China. Results show that although GVC embeddedness is associated with high use of external knowledge sources,clustered firms' innovation is promoted indirectly through explicit knowledge spillover. Intrinsic connections exist among the different dimensions of GVC embeddedness,that is,structure embeddedness not only directly improves relationship embeddedness but also indirectly improves acknowledgement embeddedness through relationship embeddedness.

Myths and realities of China's apparel industry——from a global value chain perspective

Rising export and market shares and rampant bankruptcies coexist in China's apparel industry.Against the backdrop of the global value chain,the by-country industrial competitiveness evaluation system based on final products is failing.Using the global value chain theory,this article investigates the international competitiveness of China's apparel industry and introduces the case study of Nike's global value chain,reaching the conclusion that existing evaluations have exaggerated the international competitiveness of China's apparel industry.China's apparel industry is at the lowest level of the global value chain,and most local enterprises have not entered the mainstream global value chain and are still internationally uncompetitive.As far as China's current economic development level and targets are concerned,it may be too unrealistic to discuss industrial upgrading entirely from the perspective of OEM-ODM-OBM.China's apparel producers should stick to both paths:one is the priority to strengthen manufacturing and OEM;the other is to do more learning to go beyond sub-contract manufacturing and prepare for long-term growth of OBM.Building middle and high-end apparel producers and creating local brands by virtue of China's status as a big country is the right path for development given the industry's present situation.

Tracking Transfer of Carbon Dioxide Emissions to Countries along the Silk Roads Through Global Value Chains

The Belt and Road Initiative(BRI)has aroused rich discussions about the possible increase in carbon dioxide emission under the arduous global carbon dioxide emission reduction task.Adopting the methods of input-output technique and complex network ana-lysis,we first construct a fairer method to trace carbon dioxide emission transfer based on global value chains,then trace the source of carbon dioxide emission transfer to the Silk Roads countries with a long-term multiple regional input-output database.We find that,first,after the proposal of the BRI,the total direct carbon dioxide emissions of the Silk Roads countries and China’s proportion of carbon dioxide emission transfer to the other Silk Roads countries have both declined.Second,the Silk Roads countries are generally the net receivers of carbon dioxide emission transfer,and the inflow is mainly distributed in Southeast Asian countries and core countries in other sub-regions.Then,the transfer of carbon dioxide emission accepted by the Silk Roads countries comes mostly from large developing countries,such as China,Russia,and India,and developed countries,such as the United States,Japan,and Germany.The products are mainly concentrated in energy and chemical industries,as well as heavy industries,such as mining and quarrying,and metal products.We suggest that,due to the high degree of spatial and industrial concentrations of carbon dioxide emission transfer,it is necessary to make targeted policies for these countries and industries to reduce these transfers.

Route selection of sporting goods industry in China based on global value chain

Based on the global value chain, the paper analyzes the condition of Chinese sporting goods industry in the global value chain, and studies the problems existing in Chinese sporting goods industry. And then, the paper explores the upgrade and route selection of Chinese sporting goods industry in the global value chain.

The Dual Effects of Global Value Chain Embeddedness on Chinese Exports’ Technological Sophistication

This paper develops a framework for the assessment of global value chain embeddedness based on the dual structure of product embeddedness and functional embeddedness and provides a theoretical demonstration of the dual effects of the level, structure and the value sources of global value chain embeddedness on export technology sophistication. From there, the paper carries out an estimation of non-competitive input- output table using quadratic optimized algorithm with differentiation between processing trade and general trade to arrive at various indicators of foreign value-added ratio that reflect the level of global value chain embeddedness. On this basis, the panel econometric model for 27 manufacturing sectors of China between 2001 and 2010 is employed to test the effect of foreign value-added ratio on the technology sophistication of manufacturing export. Our research indicates that by taking part in division of labor in the global value chain and acquiring foreign intermediate inputs, China＇s manufacturing sector has increased its export technology sophistication. It also indicates that, compared with such inputs as raw materials and parts and components, service input has great contributions to technology improvement. With the direct contributions of foreign value-added under control, the foreign value-added from developed countries has a restrictive effect on the R＆D activities of export manufacturing, which gives rise to the one-way technology reliance on dominant enterprises of the value chain and the ＂low-end lock-up＂ effect; meanwhile, the method of embeddedness that takes advantage of the foreign value-added of other countries is more dependent on the indigenous R＆D capacity of export enterprises and thus more favorable to the improvement of export technology sophistication.

Global Value Chains in the Era of 4IR: New Paradigm of Business Models for SMEs

This paper presents a brief literature review of previous studies methodologies,models,and contexts in studying firms’upgrading in Global Value Chains(GVCs).The key context of this paper is set within Fourth Industrial Revolution(4IR).Through the literature review,this paper offers to identify the opportunities of theoretical novelty and ways to elaborate on understanding firm dynamics in Global Value Chains in the context of 4IR.The approach based on Business Model(BM)innovations and new forms of organizing for business(such as platforms)is used to synthesize from previous research findings and build on to newer explanations of firms’entry,learning,and upgrading within GVCs.

Creating Inclusive Global Value Chains under the BRI from the Perspective of Public Goods Supply and Demand

Supply and demand of public goods provide a brand-new theoretical framework for research on the creation of inclusive global value chains(GVCs)under the Belt and Road Initiative(BRI).The supply of international public goods is an important positive variable for creating global value chains under the BRI,in which China and other developing countries involved,as well as their small and medium-sized enterprises(SMEs),are microscopic entities.When the BRI’s supply of instrumental,institutional,and conceptual international public goods is in equilibrium with the demand of GVC entities for public goods,the BRI creates necessary conditions for the extension of GVCs.GVCs created under the BRI are of great value in promoting inclusiveness,fair income distribution,balanced regional development,and the restructuring of international economic governance.Under the current GVC system,some developed countries have been wary about the BRI and even developed misgivings and biases.Nevertheless,developed countries may play an active role in bridging gaps in the BRI’s development and complement their respective strengths with developing countries for win-win cooperation.

The Global Value Chains and the Evolution of Chinese Economic Model

According to the Word Bank,in the first 38 years of China,economic reform took 700 million people out poverty line in China at the same time benefiting the Global South economy due to the integration of the transnational enterprises global value chains with China.Chinese government understood the economic rational of global value chains,Flying Geese Model,and foreign direct investment theories and introduced policies to attract foreign capital,technology,production,and foreign buyers,placing China as the final stage of the production networks in Asia and also transforming China in the biggest buying market of many resources and energy suppliers from less developed countries in Asia,Africa,and South America.But a new model of Chinese economic development even more interconnected and interdependent with the world is now on move.Even quite before the world acknowledge the protectionist mindset of the US in Trump era,Chinese President Xi Jinping launched in 2013 a very ambitious initiative under the name of“One Road,One Belt,the 21st-Century Maritime Silk Road”to enhance a new stage of world globalization,which together with two complimentary initiatives:the“International Production Cooperation”and“Third-Country Market Cooperation”,and in complementarity with the“Made in China 2025”and“Internet Plus”plans will lead China to develop global value chains leaded by Chinese companies and integrating countries of Europe,Africa,Asia,and South America.

Global Value Chain Optimization Effect of the Belt and Road Initiative-From the Perspective of Improving Participating Countries’Position in the Division of Labor

To promote the reconstruction and optimization of the global value chains(GVCs),it is essential to tackle the prominent contradictions and problems including inequality of opportunity and status in the evolution of the GVC division of labor.The Belt and Road Initiative(BRI)promoted by China has obtained remarkable achievements in this regard;however,there lacks sound theoretical and empirical evidence as to whether the BRI has driven the GVCs to develop towards a more equitable direction.This paper employs the difference-in-differences model to empirically analyze the GVC optimization effect of the BRI.In addition,on the basis of the so-called“five-pronged approach”index,the paper uses the mediating effect model to test the mechanism of influence.The empirical results suggest that the BRI has helped participating countries along the routes to increase their position in GVC division of labor significantly through the mediating mechanism of four out of the“five-pronged approach”,namely policy coordination,road connectivity,unimpeded trade,and currency convertibility.The strengthening of and closer people-to-people ties has not yet appeared to be an effective mediator,and a possible explanation may be that its influence is indirect and lagging.