Global Value Chains: A Firm Level Approach

October 7, 2025, "Global value chains have come under severe scrutiny in the past few years. Pandemic-era shortages, geopolitical concerns, and new industrial strategies have all revived an old worry: have firms become too dependent on a handful of foreign suppliers and assembly hubs? Should governments use policy tools such as tariffs or subsidies to promote domestic manufacturing employment and capabilities? The heart of this debate centers around a firm’s decisions about whether and how to participate in global value chains: which countries will supply its components, where should it open assembly plants, and what foreign markets shall it enter to sell its goods?"