Abstract

In the last few decades, a new global division of industrial organization has emerged: companies are integrated with strategic and geographically dispersed business partners, based on fragmented structures in global value chains (GVC). GVC’s analysis has generally focused on intermediates flows between countries, with little attention to uneven levels of integration between and within countries. This thesis analyzes the geography of integration in GVC and the development opportunities in Latin America in three articles. The first considers the international geography, and econometrically assesses the role of trade policy in Latin American on the GVC participation. The results show that bilateral trade agreements increase the uneven geography of integration and reinforce the net export position of primary industries in Latin American countries. The second article includes the spatial component in socioenvironmental accounting and assesses the interregional chaining of CO2 emissions at regional and industrial level, as well as the trade-offs of integration in value chains and the intensity of pollution networks from a multiscalar perspective. The interaction between domestic (DVC) and global value chains (GVC) in Brazil was evaluated using the hypothetical extraction method at bilateral level. For each flow of origin-destination trade, the results highlight the concentration of polluting networks driven by spatial inequalities. The relative heterogeneity shows that the peripheral Brazilian states are less polluting in absolute terms, in response to specialization in activities with low added value. However, central regions are relatively less polluting in terms of integration into subnational and international value chains. The third and last article discusses regional exposure to value chains as a result of exogenous shocks. Partial restrictions on intermediate consumption and interregional final demand were simulated, associated with the mitigation policies for the spread of COVID-19 in Brazil. The results indicate that the peripheral areas are doubly affected, as they depend on the demand of the core areas of the domestic production network, and on the foreign demand of an export base. Finally, it is relevant for regional policy to consider the role of value chains at different spatial scales to minimize negative effects and promote convergence. We conclude that spatial interdependencies are relevant to promote focused regional development strategies based on territorial vocations.