--- canonical_url: "https://csls.ca/ipm-archive/ipm-issue-32/the-relationship-between-global-value-chains-and-productivity/" title: "The Relationship Between Global Value Chains and Productivity" author: name: "CSLS" url: "https://csls.ca/author/cslc/" date_published: "2026-07-13T07:42:32+00:00" date_modified: "2026-07-13T07:42:32+00:00" post_type: "ipm" summary: "" ipm_issue_period: - "Spring 2017" ipm_keyword: - "fragmentation" - "global value chains" - "GVCs" - "knowledge spillovers" - "multinationals" - "OECD" - "productivity" - "services" - "supply chain" - "trade" ipm_research_theme: - "Sectoral and firm-level dynamics" - "Trade" ipm_country_focus: - "International" - "OECD" featured_image: "https://csls.ca/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/IPM_50_banner.webp" status: "publish" --- # The Relationship Between Global Value Chains and Productivity Canonical URL: https://csls.ca/ipm-archive/ipm-issue-32/the-relationship-between-global-value-chains-and-productivity/ # The Relationship Between Global Value Chains and Productivity [Download full PDF article](https://csls.ca/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/IPM-Issue-32-4-Criscuolo-Timmis.pdf) Cite this article × Cite this article as: Criscuolo, Chiara, and Jonathan Timmis. 2017. “The Relationship Between Global Value Chains and Productivity.” International Productivity Monitor, No. 32 (Spring 2017): 61–83. https://www.csls.ca/ipm-archive/ipm-issue-32/the-relationship-between-global-value-chains-and-productivity/ ## Authors: - Chiara Criscuolo OECD - Jonathan Timmis OECD ## IPM Issue 32 Spring 2017 pp. 61–83 ## Related IPM articles [Is the SNA Still Useful? 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The Canadian Experience Tim Sargent Fall 2024 | IPM Issue 47 | pp. 39–53](https://csls.ca/ipm-archive/ipm-issue-47/how-does-industrial-policy-impact-output-hours-and-productivity-the-canadian-experience/) ## Abstract ## Résumé EN FR Copy link Email LinkedIn We review the evidence linking Global Value Chains (GVCs) and productivity. GVCs are a key feature of the world economy, with production increasingly fragmented across borders. However research has uncovered that GVCs are not primarily global in nature, but focused around regional clusters of production, and services and multinationals (MNEs) play a key role in these networks. A broad literature using both industry and firm-level data has uncovered that participating in GVCs can stimulate productivity growth through a myriad of channels. These include the potential for firm specialisation in core tasks, access to imported inputs, knowledge spillovers from foreign firms and pro-competitive effects of foreign competition. However, there are many potential obstacles to seizing the opportunities for growth. The changing organisation of production across firms and countries emphasises the importance of some well-established policy levers (such as trade policy) as well as some of those previously under-explored (such as domestic service market competition). Embeddedness within GVCs may also expose firms to new sources of risk and affect resilience of economies, as a shock to one part of the supply chain can propagate throughout production networks. Global Value Chains (GVCs) are a key feature Nous passons en revue les données probantes reliant les chaînes de valeur mondiales (CVM) et la productivité. Les CVM sont une caractéristique clé de l’économie mondiale, la production étant de plus en plus fragmentée au-delà des frontières. Cependant, la recherche a révélé que les CVM ne sont pas principalement mondiales, mais se concentrent autour de grappes de production régionales, les services et les multinationales jouant un rôle clé dans ces réseaux. Un large corpus de littérature utilisant à la fois des données sectorielles et des données au niveau des entreprises a montré que la participation aux CVM peut stimuler la croissance de la productivité par une myriade de canaux, notamment le potentiel de spécialisation des entreprises dans les tâches essentielles, l’accès aux intrants importés, les retombées de connaissances des entreprises étrangères et les effets pro-concurrentiels de la concurrence étrangère. [Download full PDF](https://csls.ca/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/IPM-Issue-32-4-Criscuolo-Timmis.pdf)