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Inequality and Income Distribution in Global Value Chains

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  • Carlos Aguiar de Medeiros
  • Nicholas Trebat

Abstract

Global value chains (GVCs), led by transnational corporations (TNCs), have reshaped the world division of labor over the past two decades. GVCs are pervasive in low technology manufacturing, such as textile and apparel, as well as in more advanced industries like automobiles, electronics, and machines. This hierarchical division of labor generates wild competition at the lower value-added stages of production, where low wages and low profit margins prevail for workers and contract manufacturers in developing countries. At the top of the hierarchy another kind of competition prevails, centered on the ability to monitor and control intellectual property rights related to innovation, finance, and marketing. We argue that GVCs have had crucial effects on income inequality and the appropriation of rents in modern capitalism.

Suggested Citation

  • Carlos Aguiar de Medeiros & Nicholas Trebat, 2017. "Inequality and Income Distribution in Global Value Chains," Journal of Economic Issues, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 51(2), pages 401-408, April.
    • Handle: RePEc:mes:jeciss:v:51:y:2017:i:2:p:401-408
    DOI: 10.1080/00213624.2017.1320916
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    Cited by:

    1. Cédric Durand & Wiliiam Milberg, 2020. "Intellectual monopoly in global value chains," Review of International Political Economy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 27(2), pages 404-429, March.
    2. Ding, Junfeng & Du, Debin & Duan, Dezhong & Xia, Qifan & Zhang, Qiang, 2024. "A network analysis of global competition in photovoltaic technologies: Evidence from patent data," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 375(C).
    3. Olivera Kostoska & Sonja Mitikj & Petar Jovanovski & Ljupco Kocarev, 2020. "Core-periphery structure in sectoral international trade networks: A new approach to an old theory," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 15(4), pages 1-24, April.
    4. repec:hal:cepnwp:hal-01850438 is not listed on IDEAS
    5. Hernández-Ramírez, E. & del Castillo-Mussot, M. & Hernández-Casildo, J., 2021. "World per capita gross domestic product measured nominally and across countries with purchasing power parity: Stretched exponential or Boltzmann–Gibbs distribution?," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 568(C).
    6. Sophie van Huellen & Fuad Mohammed Abubakar, 2021. "Potential for Upgrading in Financialised Agri-food Chains: The Case of Ghanaian Cocoa," The European Journal of Development Research, Palgrave Macmillan;European Association of Development Research and Training Institutes (EADI), vol. 33(2), pages 227-252, April.
    7. Gregor Semieniuk & Victor M. Yakovenko, 2020. "Historical Evolution of Global Inequality in Carbon Emissions and Footprints versus Redistributive Scenarios," Papers 2004.00111, arXiv.org.
    8. Jennifer Bair & Mathew Mahutga & Marion Werner & Liam Campling, 2021. "Capitalist crisis in the “age of global value chainsâ€," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 53(6), pages 1253-1272, September.
    9. Susan K. Sell, 2020. "What COVID-19 Reveals About Twenty-First Century Capitalism: Adversity and Opportunity," Development, Palgrave Macmillan;Society for International Deveopment, vol. 63(2), pages 150-156, December.
    10. Lei Wang & Thomas Stephen Ramsey, 2023. "Will falling domestic labor compensation share really be improved when global trade slowdown?," Palgrave Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 10(1), pages 1-12, December.
    11. Shuguang Liu & Xiaowen Tang & Yubin Zhao, 2024. "Global Value Chain Participation, Employment Structure, and Urban–Rural Income Gap in the Context of Sustainable Development," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 16(5), pages 1-19, February.

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