The value of global value chains:

a critical analysis of the theoretical approach to GVC

Abstract

Since the 1990s, academics have discussed the dynamics of Global Value Chains (CGV) and the possible benefits of the insertion of national industries as a possible development opportunity. Departing from this consolidated literature, this paper critically analyses GVC by developing three main points in which the narrative of mutual gains is an ideologically charged lens for analysing production within the scope of global capitalism. The first is the persistence of large wage differentials between workers in developed and developing countries, not only due to different productivity levels, but also due to social and productive structures that are based on the exploitation of labour. Adopting the interpretation of Selwyn (2019) and Quentin & Campling (2017), GVCs end up reproducing poverty and social inequality among workers in the Global South. The second point is about the possibility of capital movement and flight of surplus value, facilitated and stimulated by CGV, creating new dynamics of global inequality between countries and intra-countries. Finally, we deal with the export dynamics of environmental damage facilitated by CGV, in addition to critically presenting reformist proposals to the current scenario of environmental degradation. Therefore, this paper summarizes critical views on the blind internationalization of trade proposed by the dominant analysis of GVCs as it represents a sensitive barrier to socioeconomic development in the Global South.