Documents Meliciani, Valentina 3 results

"In recent years, advanced economies around the globe have experienced a pronounced slowdown in productivity growth. The causes of this so-called secular stagnation remain unclear. Some economists argue that we are simply measuring productivity improvements incorrectly and that the statistics are ignoring technological innovations. Others place the blame on the Great Recession, arguing that labour productivity took the hit in countries with flexible labour markets when GDP growth was constrained by globally deficient demand. Most economists agree that stagnant productivity is a legitimate concern, and given that productivity growth is the main driver of economic growth, it is essential to find remedies. Unfortunately, the current economic climate is characterised by a low potential for increased productivity growth, making it particularly difficult for Europe to achieve any progress in catching up with the higher productivity levels in the US. One potential source of improvement could be increased investment in intangible capital, which is positively linked to productivity growth. Finally, the most recent data indicate that after a decade of almost continuous slowdown, Europe's productivity performance is actually beginning to strengthen, in part due to the pro-cyclicality of productivity. If investment and business spending on digitisation persist, the uptick in labour productivity could translate into better total factor productivity growth, a measure of efficiency which identifies possible spillovers from new technologies and innovation."

"This chapter aims at revisiting the empirical evidence on the recent trends of countries' integration in global value chains in Europe. It investigates two potential sources of unbalances that these processes might relate to: (i) the sectoral specialization of the patterns of international fragmentation, whether high technology manufacturing or knowledge intensive services (KIBS); (ii) the occupational categories that have benefited or been penalized by these trends. A rich empirical mapping of these trends in the European countries is provided, based on OECD ICIO and EU ISCO data. The results on the overall and sectoral-specific trends of integration in GVCs and the associated changes in the shares of managers and manual workers show a dual-speed and qualitatively different integration patterns in Europe, with Eastern European (EE) countries rapidly integrating in high tech manufacturing, and the core of western countries strengthening their mutual integration in the KIBS area. Despite the relatively “good quality” integration of EE countries, the evidence does not seem to reveal a mirroring upgrading of employment structures. While this empirical contribution does not attempt to identify causal relationships, the picture provided in the chapter shows that, overall, integration in GVC seems to reproduce and perhaps exacerbate the initial asymmetries in the sectoral and employment structure, with manual workers occupation reducing overall and knowledge intensive occupations concentrating in western Europe."

"This paper provides empirical evidence on the relationship between patterns of integration in global value chains (GVCs), the ‘quality' of such integration in terms of technological capabilities and the structure of employment in European countries and sectors. We study employment shares in fabrication and headquarter occupations in terms of functional specialisation and employment upgrading, making two specific contributions.

First, we explicitly account for pre-existing asymmetries in employment structure. Second, we account for the complex role of technology both in terms of country-industries' own initial technological intensity and that of their GVC partners. To achieve this we blend data on employment, trade in value added, patents and intangible asset stocks, for the period 2000-2014. We find that such pre-existing asymmetries are highly persistent over time with little sign of convergence in employment structure over our observed period.

Furthermore GVC participation is not related, in and of itself, to changes in employment structure. However, this relationship appears to be mediated by country-industries' initial technological position. Technological leaders exhibit greater shares of employment in headquarter functions as they increase their integration in GVCs; in contrast country-industries that start off as technological laggards see further integration in GVCs alongside an increase in the share of employment in fabrication functions."