Functional Upgrading and Downgrading in Global Value Chains

The Growth Lab's Research Seminar series is a weekly seminar that brings together researchers from across the academic spectrum who share an interest in growth and development.

Speaker: Eduardo Hernández-Rodríguez

Co-authors: Ron Boschma, Andrea Morrison and Xianjia Ye

Format: Online only / Zoom

Abstract: This paper studies the role of complementary interregional value chain linkages in functional upgrading and downgrading in global value chains in EU regions. It adopts an evolutionary approach to assess functional upgrading and downgrading using relatedness and economic complexity metrics. The empirical analysis of 199 EU regions between the years 2000 and 2010 shows that, while local capabilities remain crucial, complementary interregional value chain linkages increase (decrease) the likelihood of functional upgrading (downgrading) in GVCs. Regions engaged in GVCs in which partner regions offer complementary capabilities are more likely to specialise in more complex functions and to retain such specialisations over time. By doing so, this paper proposes a new theoretical-analytical framework to identify partner regions that can offer complementary capabilities in GVCs.

Speaker bio: Eduardo Hernández Rodríguez is PhD candidate in economic geography at Utrecht University. He holds both a bachelor’s degree in economics (2019) and a bachelor’s degree in law (2019) from the University of Seville, where he was also a research assistant at the Department of Applied Economics II (2018-2019). He also holds a master’s degree in European economic studies (2020), majoring in European law and economic analysis, from the College of Europe in Bruges, Belgium. In 2020 he started his PhD at Utrecht University with a Marie Curie Fellowship within the POLISS innovative training network. During his PhD he was visiting PhD at the Department of Management and Technology and ICRIOS at Bocconi University in Milan, Italy (2021-2022). He was also a Fellow at the Department of Economics and Statistics at the World Intellectual Property Organization in Geneva, Switzerland (2022).