Upstreamness, social upgrading and gender: Equal benefits for all?

Nicola Gagliardi, Benoît Mahy () and Francois Rycx
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Benoît Mahy: University of Mons (humanOrg) and DULBEA

No 359, Working Paper Research from National Bank of Belgium

Abstract: This paper examines social upgrading related to firms’ participation in Global Value Chains (GVCs) from a developed countries’ perspective. Merging detailed matched employer-employee data relative to the Belgian manufacturing industry with unique information on firm-level upstreamness, we investigate whether workers on the upstream stage of GVCs benefit from higher wages. We also enrich our analysis with a gender dimension. Unconditional quantile regressions and decomposition methods reveal that firms’ upstreamness fosters workers’ social upgrading. Nevertheless, gains are found to be unequally shared among workers. Male top-earners are the main beneficiaries; whereas women, irrespective of their earnings, appear to be unfairly rewarded.

Keywords: Social upgrading; global value chains; WagesGender; Developed countries (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: F61 F66 J16 J31 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 39 pages
Date: 2018-12
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-hme and nep-int
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nbb:reswpp:201810-359

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