Working Papers


Abstract: Despite the efforts made to increase women’s inclusion in the economy, they are still underrepresented in trade in general and in global value chains in particular. Thus, this paper aims at examining the impact of global value chains on women’s trade participation as entrepreneurs and employees. It also analyzes how this effect is moderated through external (gender provisions in trade agreements) and internal (investment climate variables) factors. The analysis uses firm-level data for 154 developing economies and emerging markets with a special focus on the Middle East and North Africa region, being one of the regions with the lowest female labor force participation. The main findings show that global value chains integration increases the likelihood of being a female owner and the share of female employees, especially production ones. A less robust negative effect is found for the impact on being a female top manager. These effects are moderated by the inclusion of gender provisions in trade agreements and by the characteristics of the investment climate (especially tax policy, access to finance, and corruption). These results remain robust after controlling for the endogeneity of global value chains using an instrumental variable approach and a propensity score estimation method where the treatment is being part of a global value chains. Thus, global value chains can be perceived as a tool that boosts women’s empowerment in emerging economies, especially in the Middle East and North Africa region.



Abstract: The undervaluation of the real exchange rate (RER) can influence the performance of national exports and affect a country’s participation in global value chains (GVCs). Thus, using the Eora dataset for 143 countries over the period 1995-2018, we assess the impact of this policy on a country’s foreign value added (FVA) in exports which represents the value added in exports whose outputs are produced by foreign industries (backward participation) and the domestic value added (DVX) in exports, that  refers to the value added that is embodied in the exports of other countries (forward linkages). Currency undervaluation displays a positive impact on these two ways of participating in GVCs. Consistent with what has been noted in a recent strand of literature, undervaluation acts as a compensatory factor for countries with weak institutions, and the impact of this undervaluation becomes more pronounced as the level of digitization in the economy increases. Our econometric results remain robust to a battery of sensitivity analysis tests.

Other Publications

Summary: Young women and men play critical roles in trade, as entrepreneurs, skilled workers, cross-border traders, and consumers, yet face structural and capacity barriers to participating in trade. This paper investigates the participation of young women and men in trade with a focus on their entrepreneurial and employee roles. It considers the challenges faced by small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), which youth are more likely to own or run. In the absence of age-disaggregated data, the authors use the World Bank Enterprise Surveys to assess the characteristics and the barriers faced by SMEs engaged in global value chains. This is complemented by literature and qualitative evidence that can be applied to the experience of youth. The paper then investigates the situation of youth in employment by considering the gap in skilled labour faced by trading firms that can be addressed by youth, with a particular focus on digital skills. A gender mainstreaming approach is applied throughout to assess the differences in the experiences of young women and men. The analysis then considers successful policy, private sector, and partner interventions to address these gaps and highlights the newer trend of integrating youth considerations in trade agreements. Findings suggest that the primary challenge faced by youth-owned or -led smaller trading firms is access to finance and that greater integration in global value chains allows SMEs to overcome barriers related to factors of production. Trading firms may provide more stable and skilled employment for young women and increased opportunities for youth if successful policies and programmes to address a labour-skills mismatch are scaled. Youth participation in leadership and decision-making can address sustainability and impact gaps through a holistic approach involving capacity building and mentorship. Existing experience and evidence show initial successes and provide insight into approaches stakeholders can take at the level of trade agreements, policy, and implementation to ensure young women and men fully benefit from trade and trade outcomes are enhanced as a result. The paper ultimately argues that policies and programmes to encourage and ensure the full participation of youth in trade in all their roles can address market gaps and enhance trade. 


Summary: Although youth theoretically stand to benefit from trade, and trade can gain from increased youth participation, young women and men face structural and capacity barriers to participating in trade as entrepreneurs and employees. This brief summarises a paper¹ that investigates the challenges to participation of young women and men in trade and the lessons learned from the policies and programmes that can address these barriers. The brief then makes recommendations on actions that can addressing remaining gaps and enhance the engagement of youth in gender-responsive and inclusive trade.


Work in Progress


Abstract: In recent years, global value chains (GVCs) have become central to international trade and development strategies, offering new pathways for economic transformation and socio-economic upgrading. By enabling countries to specialize in specific niches along the production chain-rather than producing the whole product-GVCs promote broader participation through vertical specialization. Today, a country’s ability to benefit from global trade and the growth-enhancing transfers it generates is partially linked to its ability to join GVCs. Competitiveness is no longer defined solely by a country’s capacity to join GVCs, but also by identifying strategic positions within them, moving up the value chain, and escaping the low value-added trap. Using the EORA multi-regional input-output dataset from 1995 to 2022, this paper analyses how bilateral real exchange rate (RER) depreciation affects Egypt’s integration into GVCs at the sectoral level. It also examines the potential for sectoral upgrading and changes in a sector’s position along the value chain using the upstreamness index. The main findings show that RER depreciation increases GVC integration across both forward and backward linkages, considered complements in production. When disaggregating by sectoral technology intensity—namely primary, low-tech, and high-tech sectors—the results reveal that forward linkage integration is most responsive to RER depreciation in the primary sector. As per the backward linkage, high-tech sectors show the highest responsiveness, followed by low-tech sectors. Regarding the upstreamness index, RER depreciation does not exert a statistically significant effect across any of three sectoral categories. However, when accounting for the role of foreign knowledge embedded in imported intermediate inputs, the knowledge spillover index exhibits a significant positive impact on both low-tech and high-tech sectors. Furthermore, when the knowledge spillover index in interacted with the bilateral RER variable, a positive and statistically significant effect on the upstreamness index emerges, particularly pronounced in high-tech sectors. The results are robust to a battery of robustness checks. Checking the heterogeneity across different subperiods and trade direction. We find that South-North VA trade flows are more responsive to RER depreciation, and the responsiveness varies across sub-periods, with stronger effects observed during 2001-2007 and 2008-2015.


Abstract: Despite concerted efforts to enhance women’s inclusion in the economy, they remain underrepresented in trade in general and in global value chains (GVCs) in particular. Thus, using firm-level data from the World Bank Enterprise Surveys (WBES), this paper aims at examining the impact of GVCs on women’s trade participation as entrepreneurs, managers and employees. The main findings reveal that GVC integration increases the likelihood of being a female owner and the share of female employees. A less robust negative effect is observed on the probability of female holding top managerial positions. These results remain robust after controlling for the endogeneity of GVCs using an instrumental variable approach and a propensity score estimation method, with GVC participation serving as the treatment variable. Further analysis explores  sectoral heterogeneity across three dimensions: sector type (manufacturing versus services), skill intensity, and technological intensity. The findings show that firms in the services sector, as well as those in unskilled labor-intensive and low-tech sectors, are the main employers of women. Additionally, while integration into GVCs significantly boosts female labor force participation and creates opportunities for ownership and management in sectors reliant on unskilled labor, it also fosters managerial and ownership positions in the manufacturing and medium-high tech intensive sectors compared to firms not integrated into GVCs. Distinguishing between firms based on their size, we find that the impact -whether positive or negative- of GVC participation on female ownership, top management, and the share of female employees is predominantly driven by Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs).