Handbook for Value Chain Research, IDRC, Kaplinsky & Morris, 2003

Description
The growing integration of the global economy provides many with an opportunity for substantial economic and income growth. For the developing world, the production of components linked on a global scale opens doors and has the potential to increase the rate and scope of industrial growth and upgrading of manufacturing and service activities. The down side to globalization is a growing tendency toward increased inequality within and between countries and a rise in the absolute level of poverty worldwide. Four questions arise from these observations:
- Why has participation in global markets not led to widespread social and economic benefits?
- Is it possible to identify a causal link between globalization and inequality?
- What can be done to stop, or reverse, the negative tendencies of globalization?
- How can the factors and processes that facilitate global manufacturing be analyzed?

Value chain analysis focused on the dynamics of links within the productive sector, particularly the way firms and countries are globally integrated, can provide important insights into these issues. It is especially useful for new producers - including poor producers and countries - who are trying to enter global markets, and it is also useful as an analytical tool in understanding the policy environment that provides for efficient allocation of resources domestically, even as it is used as an analytic tool to understand the way firms and countries participate in the global economy.

The Handbook aims to assist researchers in formulating and executing value chain research with a view to framing a policy environment to assist poor producers and countries to participate effectively in the global economy. The Handbook is for both academics and practitioners and provides some pointers on the policy implications of value chain analysis.