IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/zbw/sgscdp/1.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Is production in global value chains (GVCs) sustainable? A review of the empirical evidence on social and environmental sustainability in GVCs

Author

Listed:
  • Delera, Michele

Abstract

Sustainability in global value chains (GVCs) hinges on the interplay between specialisation, scale, and efficiency effects. This paper reviews different strands of literature which provide evidence on these channels. The evidence that I collect suggests that the sustainability impacts of GVCs are ambiguous. By allowing firms to specialise through the offshoring of relatively more polluting production activities, GVCs are associated to sizeable amounts of carbon leakage. Insofar as firms expand following entry in foreign markets, environmental impacts may also increase. Yet at the same time, participation in GVCs makes firms more energy and emission efficient than their domestic peers through a variety of mechanisms. Thus, GVCs also contribute to dampen emission growth. In terms of social sustainability, GVCs are associated with an income premium for workers and producers alike, although these benefits are not equally distributed.

Suggested Citation

  • Delera, Michele, 2022. "Is production in global value chains (GVCs) sustainable? A review of the empirical evidence on social and environmental sustainability in GVCs," Sustainable Global Supply Chains Discussion Papers 1, Research Network Sustainable Global Supply Chains.
    • Handle: RePEc:zbw:sgscdp:1
    DOI: 10.57671/sgscdp-2201
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.econstor.eu/bitstream/10419/253701/1/SGSC-DP1.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.57671/sgscdp-2201?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Van den Broeck, Goedele & Swinnen, Johan & Maertens, Miet, 2017. "Global value chains, large-scale farming, and poverty: Long-term effects in Senegal," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 66(C), pages 97-107.
    2. Mateo Ortiz & María‐Ángeles Cadarso & Luis‐Antonio López, 2020. "The carbon footprint of foreign multinationals within the European Union," Journal of Industrial Ecology, Yale University, vol. 24(6), pages 1287-1299, December.
    3. Schuster, Monica & Maertens, Miet, 2013. "Do private standards create exclusive supply chains? New evidence from the Peruvian asparagus export sector," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 43(C), pages 291-305.
    4. Akpalu, Wisdom & Normanyo, Ametefee K., 2017. "Gold Mining Pollution and the Cost of Private Healthcare: The Case of Ghana," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 142(C), pages 104-112.
    5. von der Goltz, Jan & Barnwal, Prabhat, 2019. "Mines: The local wealth and health effects of mineral mining in developing countries," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 139(C), pages 1-16.
    6. Thorsten Schank & Claus Schnabel & Joachim Wagner, 2016. "Do Exporters Really Pay Higher Wages? First Evidence from German Linked Employer–Employee Data," World Scientific Book Chapters, in: Microeconometrics of International Trade, chapter 5, pages 177-213, World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd..
    7. Marcel P. Timmer & Erik Dietzenbacher & Bart Los & Robert Stehrer & Gaaitzen J. Vries, 2015. "An Illustrated User Guide to the World Input–Output Database: the Case of Global Automotive Production," Review of International Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 23(3), pages 575-605, August.
    8. Swinnen, Johan & Kuijpers, Rob, 2020. "Inclusive Value Chains to Accelerate Poverty Reduction in Africa," Jobs Group Papers, Notes, and Guides 31809214, The World Bank.
    9. Lan Yang & Yutao Wang & Ranran Wang & Jiří Jaromír Klemeš & Cecília Maria Villas Bôas de Almeida & Mingzhou Jin & Xinzhu Zheng & Yuanbo Qiao, 2020. "Environmental-social-economic footprints of consumption and trade in the Asia-Pacific region," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 11(1), pages 1-9, December.
    10. Alessandra Mezzadri, 2014. "Indian Garment Clusters and CSR Norms: Incompatible Agendas at the Bottom of the Garment Commodity Chain," Oxford Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 42(2), pages 238-258, June.
    11. de Vries, Gaaitzen J. & Ferrarini, Benno, 2017. "What Accounts for the Growth of Carbon Dioxide Emissions in Advanced and Emerging Economies? The Role of Consumption, Technology and Global Supply Chain Participation," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 132(C), pages 213-223.
    12. Valentina De Marchi & Eleonora Di Maria & Stefano Micelli, 2013. "Environmental Strategies, Upgrading and Competitive Advantage in Global Value Chains," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 22(1), pages 62-72, January.
    13. Bart Verspagen, 1997. "Estimating international technology spillovers using technology flow matrices," Review of World Economics (Weltwirtschaftliches Archiv), Springer;Institut für Weltwirtschaft (Kiel Institute for the World Economy), vol. 133(2), pages 226-248, June.
    14. Hilson, Gavin, 2009. "Small-scale mining, poverty and economic development in sub-Saharan Africa: An overview," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 34(1-2), pages 1-5.
    15. De Blasis, Fabio, 2020. "Global horticultural value chains, labour and poverty in Tanzania," World Development Perspectives, Elsevier, vol. 18(C).
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Poignant, Adrian, 2023. "Small-scale mining and agriculture: Evidence from northwestern Tanzania," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 83(C).
    2. Aldy Darwili & Enno Schröder, 2023. "On the Interpretation and Measurement of Technology-Adjusted Emissions Embodied in Trade," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 84(1), pages 65-98, January.
    3. Li, Y.L. & Chen, B. & Chen, G.Q., 2020. "Carbon network embodied in international trade: Global structural evolution and its policy implications," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 139(C).
    4. Suzuki, Aya & Mano, Yukichi & Abebe, Girum, 2018. "Earnings, savings, and job satisfaction in a labor-intensive export sector: Evidence from the cut flower industry in Ethiopia," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 110(C), pages 176-191.
    5. Konstantin Koerner, 2023. "The wage effects of offshoring to the East and West: evidence from the German labor market," Review of World Economics (Weltwirtschaftliches Archiv), Springer;Institut für Weltwirtschaft (Kiel Institute for the World Economy), vol. 159(2), pages 399-435, May.
    6. repec:ags:aaea22:335848 is not listed on IDEAS
    7. Yan, Yunfeng & Li, Xiyuan & Wang, Ran & Zhao, Zhongxiu & Jiao, Aodong, 2023. "Decomposing the carbon footprints of multinational enterprises along global value chains," Structural Change and Economic Dynamics, Elsevier, vol. 66(C), pages 13-28.
    8. Magambo, Isaiah & Dikgang, Johane & Gelo, Dambala & Tregenna, Fiona, 2021. "Gold-Mining Pollution Exposure, Health Effects and Private Healthcare Expenditure in Tanzania," MPRA Paper 108800, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    9. Zhang, Danyang & Wang, Hui & Löschel, Andreas & Zhou, Peng, 2021. "The changing role of global value chains in CO2 emission intensity in 2000–2014," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 93(C).
    10. Meemken, Eva-Marie, 2021. "Large farms, large benefits? Sustainability certification among family farms and agro-industrial producers in Peru," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 145(C).
    11. Wang, H. & Ang, B.W. & Su, Bin, 2017. "A Multi-region Structural Decomposition Analysis of Global CO2 Emission Intensity," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 142(C), pages 163-176.
    12. Zuzana Smeets Kristkova & Cornelis Gardebroek & Michiel van Dijk & Hans van Meijl, 2017. "The impact of R&D on factor-augmenting technical change – an empirical assessment at the sector level," Economic Systems Research, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 29(3), pages 385-417, July.
    13. Körner, Konstantin, 2021. "The Wage Effects of Offshoring to the East and West: Evidence from Germany," IAB-Discussion Paper 202115, Institut für Arbeitsmarkt- und Berufsforschung (IAB), Nürnberg [Institute for Employment Research, Nuremberg, Germany].
    14. Xu, Chengzhen & Zhu, Qingyuan & Li, Xingchen & Wu, Liangpeng & Deng, Ping, 2024. "Determinants of global carbon emission and aggregate carbon intensity: A multi-region input−output approach," Economic Analysis and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 81(C), pages 418-435.
    15. Andrea Leuenberger & Olga Cambaco & Hyacinthe R. Zabré & Isaac Lyatuu & Jürg Utzinger & Khátia Munguambe & Sonja Merten & Mirko S. Winkler, 2021. "“It Is Like We Are Living in a Different World” : Health Inequity in Communities Surrounding Industrial Mining Sites in Burkina Faso, Mozambique, and Tanzania," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(21), pages 1-22, October.
    16. Schulte, Patrick, 2015. "Does skill-biased technical change diffuse internationally?," ZEW Discussion Papers 15-088, ZEW - Leibniz Centre for European Economic Research.
    17. Ke Zhang & Xingwei Wang, 2021. "Pollution Haven Hypothesis of Global CO 2 , SO 2 , NO x —Evidence from 43 Economies and 56 Sectors," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(12), pages 1-27, June.
    18. Yuko Imura, 2023. "Reassessing Trade Barriers with Global Production Networks," Review of Economic Dynamics, Elsevier for the Society for Economic Dynamics, vol. 51, pages 77-116, December.
    19. Andrew B. Bernard & J. Bradford Jensen & Stephen J. Redding & Peter K. Schott, 2018. "Global Firms," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 56(2), pages 565-619, June.
    20. Aleksandra Parteka & Joanna Wolszczak-Derlacz, 2020. "Wage response to global production links: evidence for workers from 28 European countries (2005–2014)," Review of World Economics (Weltwirtschaftliches Archiv), Springer;Institut für Weltwirtschaft (Kiel Institute for the World Economy), vol. 156(4), pages 769-801, November.
    21. Melaku, Astewale Bimr & Qaim, Matin & Debela, Bethelhem Legesse, 2024. "Maternal employment in high-value agriculture and child nutrition: Evidence from the Ethiopian cut-flower industry," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 128(C).

    More about this item

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:zbw:sgscdp:1. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.sustainablesupplychains.org/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.