The importance of global value chains and regional capabilities for the economic complexity of EU-regions

Federico Colozza (), Ron Boschma (), Andrea Morrison and Carlo Pietrobelli
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Federico Colozza: University of Roma Tre

No 2021-051, MERIT Working Papers from United Nations University - Maastricht Economic and Social Research Institute on Innovation and Technology (MERIT)

Abstract: This paper combines various literatures on Global Value Chains (GVC), Economic Complexity and Evolutionary Economic Geography. The objective is to assess the role of regional capabilities and GVC participation in fostering economic complexity in 236 NUTS2-regions in Europe. Our results suggest there is no such thing as a common path of economic upgrading across EU regions. Regions with high economic complexity tend to keep their advantageous positions, as they are capable of benefitting from both regional capabilities (as proxied by a high relatedness between local activities) and external linkages in terms of GVC participation. Conversely, low-complex regions do not benefit from GVC participation, unless their regional capabilities (in terms of relatedness density) are also stronger.

Keywords: Economic Complexity; Evolutionary Economic Geography; Global Value Chains; Relatedness; Economic Upgrading; EU regions (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: B52 F23 O19 O33 R10 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021-12-17
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-eur, nep-geo, nep-hme, nep-int, nep-tid and nep-ure
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:unm:unumer:2021051

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