Tasks, Occupations, and Slowbalization: On the Limits of Fragmentation

Steven Brakman, Charles van Marrewijk and Charles van Marrewijk
Authors registered in the RePEc Author Service: Charles van Marrewijk

No 9514, CESifo Working Paper Series from CESifo

Abstract: Following the trade collapse in 2009, Globalization has recovered but the growth rate slowed down compared to the preceding period of Hyper Globalization. The persistence of this slowdown is remarkable. We argue that increased awareness of firms for the costs of involvement in global supply chains can explain the recent developments in trade flows. We formalize the existence, length, and consequences of changes in fragmentation cost along global supply chains. From a theoretical point of view, the model endogenizes production fragmentation, allowing for multiple production stages in multiple countries, while remaining tractable. From an empirical point of view, the model explains both, the period of Hyper Globalization and the subsequent Slowbalization in terms of changing fragmentation costs along global supply chains. The model is also consistent with developments regarding labor market polarization associated with modern globalization: the labor market position of medium-skilled workers in advanced countries has deteriorated relative to high- and low- skilled workers, which can be understood by changing global supply chains. Our model implies, however, that even with zero fragmentation costs the demand for certain occupations does not fall to zero for any country.

Keywords: Hyper Globalization; Slowbalization; global supply chains (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: F10 F12 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-int and nep-mac
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

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Journal Article: Tasks, occupations and slowbalisation: on the limits of fragmentation (2022)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ces:ceswps:_9514

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