New digital technologies or industry 4.0 have come to dominate global discussions of trade competitiveness in recent years, and there is growing interest in their impact on employment and gender issues. Industry 4.0 technologies are seen to offer an opportunity to break gender-bias in employment, primarily by reducing previous technical barriers to female entry into the workforce. This research brief aims to contribute to this knowledge gap by examining how the uptake of these new technologies is and will impact female participation in one of these sectors – large scale mining in Chile. Driven by well-financed, global firms, the Chilean mining sector is well positioned to adopt these technologies and its experience should offer important insights regarding the potential impact on gender. Furthermore, the research brief employs a global value chain (GVC) approach, breaking the industry down into segments and roles to better understand where specific opportunities for using the technology to bring women into this male dominated sector can be found. The findings of this exploratory research indicate that, while female participation in value chains positions is one of the lowest amongst major mining countries (3.8 percent), the changing nature of jobs has created new opportunities for women. Public policy and company strategy must be aligned to break this cycle. Ensuring that the twenty-first century technologies can indeed help reduce the gender gap requires a commitment of leadership in the industry to proactively mainstream gender into the development for the new jobs of the future and in all industrial policy strategies for the developing of mining in the country.
Global value chain (GVC) integration and upgrading have become key goals of trade and investment policy in developing countries. This study seeks to contribute to the gap in the gender and trade debate by analyzing the gender implications of, and impacts on trade and competitiveness in, a single high value manufacturing sector, medical devices. The medical devices industry offers an interesting example of a high-tech and high-value manufacturing sector. It is characterized by strong and growing global demand as populations age and healthcare expenditure expands. This study utilizes a gendered GVC framework to analyze the dynamics of female participation in two emerging countries in the industry: Costa Rica and the Dominican Republic. Three key questions are addressed: (1) what is female intensity in the industry and how does it compare to the manufacturing sector as a whole; (2) does female intensity change over time as the sector grows and more technologically sophisticated products are manufactured in a particular location, and (3) do changes in wages as a result of upgrading affect female intensity in different roles within the industry. The study is structured as follows: first, a brief overview of the existing literature on gender and GVC-trade, focusing on the benefits of a gendered GVC approach, followed by a discussion of the methodology used is presented. Second, an overview of the medical device GVC is provided to highlight key global industry characteristics, particularly with respect to the nature of work in the industry. The report examines the experiences of the two countries cases, focusing on each nation’s upgrading trajectory and gender dynamics within the industry.
Duke GVCC’s study into Pakistan’s medical devices industry was sponsored by the World Bank.
This Duke GVCC study on Pakistan’s apparel industry was sponsored by the World Bank in order to understand potential upgrading strategies to enhance the country’s competitiveness in the GVC. It begins by providing an overview of the apparel GVC to present a clear understanding of the scope of the industry, how markets are structured and how changing distribution of demand and supply destinations and lead firm organization alter structural dynamics in the chain. It then analyzes the industry within Pakistan, first detailing the country’s position in the chain by looking at its firm profile, backward linkages, product profile and end markets. The internal organization of the industry is then outlined as well as recent examples of upgrading and the factors that influence the labor environment. After assessing the country’s advantages and constraints, it provides short case studies on Vietnam and Sri Lanka’s experiences in the industry. The report concludes with potential upgrading strategies for the Pakistan in the industry.
This GVCC report first provides an overview of the offshore services GVC to present a clear understanding of the scope of the industry, how markets are structured and how changing distribution of demand and supply destinations alter structural dynamics in the chain. It then analyzes the industry within Pakistan, detailing the country’s position in the global market as well as the internal organization of the industry and the human capital status. After assessing the advantages and constraints observed in Pakistan, it looks to India and Uruguay for comparative case studies, detailing the lessons learned for Pakistan. The report concludes by outlining potential upgrading strategies to enhance the country’s competitiveness in the global market. Across the entire report, focus is placed on the opportunities than Pakistan can leverage in the export market, excluding the domestic market space.
This joint report by the GVC Center and KIET builds on recommendations from the first project to explore opportunities in technology-related services. This report: describes and defines the digital economy, provides a case study that illustrates how Industry 4.0 impacts the capital equipment GVC and provides analysis of the activities taking place in different countries including the US, China, India, Singapore and Korea. To identify entry and upgrading opportunities in this field, 28 company case studies of global information technology (IT) lead firms were completed to identify common strategies of existing global leaders.
Duke GVCC presented The Digital Economy & Global Value Chains: Implications for Korea in Seoul, Korea on December 4, 2018 at the KIET-Duke GVCC seminar on Upgrading Globalization for Innovation Growth: Expansion of Digital Companies in GVCs and its Implications. The presentation provides an overview of the results of our recent project KIET on the digital economy and GVCs.
While cruise tourism remains a small niche within the broader tourism industry—its 24 million passengers constitute just 2% of worldwide travelers—it is a critical economic activity in the Caribbean. More than two-thirds of the tourists in the region are cruise-ship passengers. Although cruise ship tourism is not as lucrative as other forms—tourists on cruise ships spend as little as one-tenth the consumption of stay-over visitors—it still accounts for an aggregated US$3.1 billion in expenditures in 2014-15 and supported roughly 75,000 jobs. St. Lucia conforms to this regional trend. Cruise tourism has a large footprint on the island, contributing 63% of the 1.05 million tourists who traveled to the island in 2017. Although there has been some fluctuation, the number of cruise arrivals has trended higher in more recent years. Nonetheless, there are still some weaknesses in the sector, most immediately the low impressions of St. Lucia’s cruise tourism products as well as the lack of strategic agenda. This report identifies some of the most prominent constraints and outlines potential upgrading strategies to boost passenger expenditures.
Shrimp is the second-leading seafood species as measured by world trade, trailing only salmon. There has been a strong increase in recent production, with global output increasing from 6.5 million MT in 2006 to 8.3 million MT in 2015, a jump of nearly 30%. The world’s leading shrimp producers traditionally have been in Southeast Asia; however, Early Mortality Syndrome has hurt stocks in Thailand and other locations. Belize is one such country. Aquaculture has traditionally been an important generator of revenue and foreign exchange, but a recent outbreak of EMS has decimated production and threatened the survival of multiple smaller and medium-sized businesses. This report uses the GVC framework to analyze Belize’s position in the shrimp industry and identify strategies for improving the competitiveness of domestic businesses.
Bananas represent an important source of economic revenue and nutrition for millions around the globe. However, resent shifts in the organizational model of banana trade and the liberalization of key import markets is changing the industry. These changes are placing increasing pressure on many exporters. Saint Lucia previously enjoyed a close relationship with the United Kingdom market, but finds its position slipping due to global market changes and internal issues related to productivity and cost of production. This report uses the global value chain framework to map Saint Lucia’s current participation in the banana industry and identify ways to increase SMEs participation in the chain.
