Tesi etd-03132023-143408
Link copiato negli appunti
Tipo di tesi
Dottorato
Autore
CRESTI, LORENZO
URN
etd-03132023-143408
Titolo
International division of labour, knowledge flows and productive capabilities: an Input-Output analysis
Settore scientifico disciplinare
SECS-P/01
Corso di studi
Istituto di Economia - JOINT PHD IN ECONOMICS
Commissione
relatore DOSI, GIOVANNI
Parole chiave
- capabilities
- employment multipliers
- global value chains
- industrial policy
- input-output
- international division of labour
- knowledge flows
- productive structure
- sectoral interdependencies
- strategic sectors
Data inizio appello
19/09/2023;
Disponibilità
parziale
Riassunto analitico
This thesis is composed by three chapters that address labour and knowledge dynamics within the global fragmentation of production, which in literature has been mainly framed as Global Value Chains (GVCs). We investigate employment dynamics at sectoral and inter-sectoral level, namely as the outcome of the evolving technological interdependencies characterizing every supply chain and influencing the branch producing the final good, or as the very international division of labour embodied in intermediary goods' flows which determines the specialization of countries and the loss of capabilities following massive offshoring trends and related patterns of dependence.
We adopt World Input-Output Database - registering intermediate trade flows between 43 countries and 56 sectors from 2000 to 2014 - as the main source of information and the Pasinettian vertically integrated sector as the conceptual and methodological unit of analysis.
In particular, the first chapter addresses the role of inter-sectoral innovation flows, which we frame as technological interdependencies, in determining sectoral employment dynamics. This purpose is achieved through the construction of an indicator capturing the amount of R\&D expenditures embodied in the backward linkages of industries. Our results show a statistically significant and negative employment impact of the degree of vertical integration in terms of acquisitions of R\&D embodied inputs. Combining the role of demand, the double nature of innovation - as product and as process -, together with inter-sectoral linkages, this work shows that the dependence of a sector from innovation performed by other ones - a proxy for input embodied process innovations - exert a negative effect upon employment.
The second chapter proposes a novel sectoral taxonomy integrating three different attributes of sectors, namely i) the strategic dimension reflected into their belonging to different classes of the Pavitt taxonomy, ii) the capacity to create jobs both internally and externally with respect to their sector/country, iii) the essentiality in satisfying basic needs. We build vertically integrated sectoral employment multipliers and we focus on Italy as a case study, a country which has undergone a deep structural transformation in the last twenty years, loosing productive capacity and also employment potential. We validate the patterns against other selected OECD countries. We finally propose an agenda for industrial policies identifying three specific sectors of intervention for the State, namely the pharmaceutical, the automotive and the care sectors.
The third chapter aims at addressing the positioning of countries and sectors in the international division of labour by leveraging on input-output linkages. We construct employment multipliers matrices containing information on labour requirements embodied in intermediate goods trade. In addition, we emphasise bilateral flows of labour in order to account for specific trade linkages between countries that highlight peculiar asymmetric relationships in labour requirements. By arguing that offshoring of labour is also offshoring of the collective knowledge embodied in the workforce, we propose an indicator of Bilateral Net Labour Dependence. We then estimate its relationship with a variable of performance of industries, as labour productivity, seeking to challenge the literature findings on a positive effect of GVCs participation. Our guess is that being in a weak position in terms of (net) labour sourcing results in an overall weakening of the capabilities of the productive structure, eventually detrimental for economic performance. We test this conjecture with a panel analysis of OECD countries and industries for the time period 2000-2014.
Overall, this thesis sheds light on controversial aspects of the global fragmentation of production by pointing out the possible detrimental outcomes for workers and capabilities development in advanced economies where the processes of outsourcing and offshoring have been severe in the last thirty years. The three chapters call for a more active role for industrial policy in shaping countries' involvement in GVCs, especially by strategically managing their positioning in in the international division of labour and of learning opportunities.
We adopt World Input-Output Database - registering intermediate trade flows between 43 countries and 56 sectors from 2000 to 2014 - as the main source of information and the Pasinettian vertically integrated sector as the conceptual and methodological unit of analysis.
In particular, the first chapter addresses the role of inter-sectoral innovation flows, which we frame as technological interdependencies, in determining sectoral employment dynamics. This purpose is achieved through the construction of an indicator capturing the amount of R\&D expenditures embodied in the backward linkages of industries. Our results show a statistically significant and negative employment impact of the degree of vertical integration in terms of acquisitions of R\&D embodied inputs. Combining the role of demand, the double nature of innovation - as product and as process -, together with inter-sectoral linkages, this work shows that the dependence of a sector from innovation performed by other ones - a proxy for input embodied process innovations - exert a negative effect upon employment.
The second chapter proposes a novel sectoral taxonomy integrating three different attributes of sectors, namely i) the strategic dimension reflected into their belonging to different classes of the Pavitt taxonomy, ii) the capacity to create jobs both internally and externally with respect to their sector/country, iii) the essentiality in satisfying basic needs. We build vertically integrated sectoral employment multipliers and we focus on Italy as a case study, a country which has undergone a deep structural transformation in the last twenty years, loosing productive capacity and also employment potential. We validate the patterns against other selected OECD countries. We finally propose an agenda for industrial policies identifying three specific sectors of intervention for the State, namely the pharmaceutical, the automotive and the care sectors.
The third chapter aims at addressing the positioning of countries and sectors in the international division of labour by leveraging on input-output linkages. We construct employment multipliers matrices containing information on labour requirements embodied in intermediate goods trade. In addition, we emphasise bilateral flows of labour in order to account for specific trade linkages between countries that highlight peculiar asymmetric relationships in labour requirements. By arguing that offshoring of labour is also offshoring of the collective knowledge embodied in the workforce, we propose an indicator of Bilateral Net Labour Dependence. We then estimate its relationship with a variable of performance of industries, as labour productivity, seeking to challenge the literature findings on a positive effect of GVCs participation. Our guess is that being in a weak position in terms of (net) labour sourcing results in an overall weakening of the capabilities of the productive structure, eventually detrimental for economic performance. We test this conjecture with a panel analysis of OECD countries and industries for the time period 2000-2014.
Overall, this thesis sheds light on controversial aspects of the global fragmentation of production by pointing out the possible detrimental outcomes for workers and capabilities development in advanced economies where the processes of outsourcing and offshoring have been severe in the last thirty years. The three chapters call for a more active role for industrial policy in shaping countries' involvement in GVCs, especially by strategically managing their positioning in in the international division of labour and of learning opportunities.
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