Relocation, Standardization and Vertical Specialization: Core–Periphery Relations in the European Automotive Value Chain

Tamás Gerőcs () and András Pinkasz ()
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Tamás Gerőcs: Institute of World Economics, Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Budapest, Hungary
András Pinkasz: Hungarian Central Statistical Office, Budapest, Hungary

Society and Economy, 2019, vol. 41, issue 2, 171-192

Abstract: The global automotive industry has been exposed to an overproduction crisis for several decades. Under the pressure of restructuring, automotive companies renew both the geographical scope and the technological standardization of their production processes. We analyze the effects this restructuring had on the development of European economies in order to understand whether vertical specializations in the automotive value chain can lead to Central and Eastern European countries’ catching up to advanced economies, or whether such specializations reproduce new forms of core– periphery relations. In order to answer this question, we introduce a new methodological approach to understand vertical specialization in the global value chain from a semi-peripheral perspective. We combine the theory of global value chains with Vernon’s product life-cycle theory. In the research we focus on the standardization of the production of electric engines behind the geographical relocation of production between core and periphery.

Keywords: core–periphery; dependent development; global automotive value chains; product life cycle; relocation; vertical specialization (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: F15 F50 F62 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
Note: The research was co-financed by the research project “From developmental states to new protectionism: changing repertoire of state interventions to promote development in an unfolding new world order” (OTKA FK_124573), supported by the Hungarian National Research, Development and Innovation Office (NKFIH). We sincerely thank those who have commented on earlier versions of this paper, including members of the Working Group for Public Sociology “Helyzet”, researchers of the Institute of World Economics, Márton Czirfusz, Pinar E. Dönmez, Ágnes Gagyi, Péter Gedeon, Csaba Jelinek, Andrea Komlosy, Martin Krzywdzinski, Tibor Meszmann, Mary Taylor and two anonymous reviewers.
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