TY - CEPII
A1 - Antonia López-Villavicencio A1 - Valérie Mignon
TI - Do Global Value Chains Amplify Global Imbalances?
IS - 2018-13
T3 - Working Papers
KW - Global Value Chains KW - Current Account Imbalances
N2 - This paper addresses the impact of countries' participation in global value chains (GVCs) on their current account
balances. Relying on a panel of 57 advanced and emerging countries, we do not fi nd evidence that GVC participation
directly raises economies' current account positions. On the contrary, we show that backward participation makes
a negative contribution to current account balances: our results contradict the speculation that current account
imbalances of downstream countries are likely to benefi t more from GVC participation than economies which are
located further upstream. Moreover, we show that there is no signifi cant indirect effect of GVC on the current account
operating through the exchange rate. Finally, our fi ndings indicate that whereas GVC participation boosts exports,
this increase is not accompanied by improvements in price competitiveness, nor by higher levels of saving rates.
ER -