Workers of the world, embrace your value chains

Input-output linkages between industries, and the specific position of industries in the value chain, determine in part the effect of trade on labor markets. With global value chains, it has become harder to use trade policy to reduce economic shocks, because the implications for employment have become more complex and difficult to assess. Although specific adjustment policies (e.g., the US Trade Adjustment Assistance program) do attempt to cover workers from first-tier upstream or downstream producers, they fail to account for linkages further up or down the value chain.

Source: www.brookings.edu