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The concept of the “global production network” (GPN) has emerged as a framework for analyzing the intricate connections between a dominant or pivotal firm and its suppliers across various countries. ¹ The expansion of GPNs signifies that trade encompasses not only the final products but also the parts and components (P&C) involved in their production. The reduction of tariff barriers and advancements in transportation and communication technology have facilitated the fragmentation of production processes across different countries. This has led to a significant transformation in the nature and structure of global trade. This chapter aims to synthesize and present this literature. By identifying the key drivers, determinants, and consequences of fragmentation trade through a literature-based approach, this study aids in assessing the opportunities and challenges those lagging countries, like India, encounter in terms of increased participation in GPNs.

The aim of the paper is to explore within-firm vertical pay inequality and its relation to firm size and firm performance.

Using firm-level microdata for Kazakhstan, the authors measure within-firm pay inequality as the wage differential between the top- and the bottom-level job occupations. The authors carry out their analysis based on panel regression models.

The authors find that within-firm pay inequality increases as firms grow. Further, they identify that this trend is mainly driven by top-occupation workers receiving more significant wage increases compared to lower-level workers as firms expand. Once the authors address concerns about endogeneity, they find that pay inequality is negatively associated with firm performance.

Developing strategies and policies that prioritize fairness and transparency in compensation practices is crucial during the expansion process of firms. By actively discouraging rent-seeking behavior, firms can create a work environment that promotes productivity and sustainability, ultimately leading to improved firm performance. The research findings highlight the importance of implementing context-specific interventions, recognizing that different environments may require tailored approaches to address pay inequality effectively.

This study contributes to the study of within-firm pay inequality, firm size and performance in an emerging economy, an area that has been largely overlooked in previous empirical research. The contrasting findings show the importance of the structural and industrial characteristics of emerging markets that contribute to broader and deeper impact of pay inequality compared to developed economies.

Increasing trade liberalization and financial integration with rise in foreign direct investment (FDI) flows have an intense impact on the labor market of both the developed as well as the developing world. The restructuring of economic activity has resulted in destruction of jobs in some parts of the economy and start-ups of new firms in the other part, growing import competition with foreign firms displacing local firms, relocation of jobs from high wage to low wage nations. It is claimed that rapid globalization has also the outcome of “race to the bottom” in terms of wages and the quality of employment. As per the latest International Labor Organization (ILO) Global Employment Trends, 2022, total global number of unemployed youths is estimated to reach 73 million in 2022 but still six million above the prepandemic level of 2019. The latest press release October 2022 points out that trade growth is likely to experience a slowdown in 2023 due to multiple shocks on global economy. High energy prices due to the Russia–Ukraine war is expected to contract household expenditure and raise the cost of manufacturing. The present chapter seeks to analyze the impact of trade flows on the labor market – job creation or job loss, wage inequality, movement toward informal economy, gender inequalities, and other related issues. The data are based on various reports available from the ILO, the World Development Indicators (WDI) and the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), and World Trade Oorganization (WTO) Trade Reports. The empirical analysis also confirms that there is a unidirectional causality from trade to employment generation.

The context of skill creation and its development is fundamental to sustainable economic growth with vertical improvement in well-being. Now when it comes to the case of less developed countries, the implication of international trade in skill formation takes an idiosyncratic shape so far as our concern: a dearth of skill education and lack of evenness in access to skill education due to the underlying rampant and pronounced economic inequality (i.e., inequality in income and wealth) among people as what is quite typical. Against this backdrop, this chapter seeks to develop a general equilibrium model in line with Jones (1965 & 1971) and Beladi and Marjit (1996) to address how leveraging of foreign trade through technological modernization of exports may work toward skill formation in less developed economies with technological dualism, informalization, and disguised unemployment. Besides, this chapter brings to glare how benefit of such modernization toward skill development stands out to be weighed against a potential worsening of distributive justice in terms of rise in wage gap between skilled and unskilled workers. Moreover, this chapter seeks to overhaul the implication of liberalization of labor market in terms of dilution of minimum wage standard for human development. Thus, the bottom line is that comes up here forth that export modernization in name of improving external competitiveness and thereof attaining effective trade openness can promote skilled human but only risking an exacerbation of wage inequality.

The liberalization initiative commenced in India from 1991 onwards, replacing the four-decade long import substitution policy. The primary objective was to enhance the role of foreign and private investment, in line with the newly embraced outward-oriented growth model. The government had undertaken several policy initiatives since then, especially to strengthen the manufacturing sector which plays an important role in the economic development of any country. The current study evaluates the effects of the liberalization policy in India on industrial outcomes. Recent studies have found that when firm heterogeneity is present in trade models, reforms will lead to a decrease in the number of firms and a rise in their average size (Melitz, 2003). A dataset of 24 manufacturing industries had been used in the current study. We test empirically whether liberalization had led to a rise in the average size of establishments as stated in the literature. We also attempt to analyze the magnitude of trade costs in terms of the impact of reforms on wages and prices. The empirical analysis based on the difference-in-difference (DID) estimation method shows that on average, trade reforms do not lead to an increase in the real wages and average size of establishments. In addition, prices appear to increase in the long run due to liberalization, with potential ramifications.

The global economy has already experienced recession in 1975, 1982, 1991, 2007 (the Great Recession or the Global Financial Meltdown), and 2020 (The Pandemic Recession). When hope of recovery has just started to emerge with real gross domestic product (GDP) growth reaching 5.7% in 2021, dark clouds are gathering ominously on the horizon again. In January 2022, the World Bank's forecasts (for global growth) were 4.1% for 2022 and 3.3% for 2023. Not only the indicators like industrial activity are shrinking, consumer and investor confidence is at a low point, workers are losing jobs, profit margins and global trade are showing a downward trend, after a period of post-pandemic expansion. But most worrying is the slowing down of the Big Trio of USA-China-Euro Zone that currently accounts for over 50% of real global GDP in Purchasing Power Parity (PPP) terms and contributed 62% to global growth over 2015–2019. Moreover, energy and food prices are showing rising trend, and Ukraine war is showing no sign of ending in the near future. In this context, the present chapter attempts to analyze whether with prices rising and productive activities (including trade) shrinking (described as “stagflation”), is the world headed for another serious slump, and if that happens, what will be its severity? It also tries to point out some limitations of the policy suggestions of the structural projection models used by the World Bank. It also tries to point out the policy suggestions of the models used by the World Bank.

The gender pay gap is a well-documented phenomenon in labor economics. Based on the 2018 Structure of Earnings Survey (SES), the authors estimate the impact of observable characteristics on the gender pay gap in Visegrad Group countries and provide policy recommendations on reducing the gender pay gap.

The Oaxaca-Blinder decomposition is applied to estimate the values of explained and unexplained parts of the gender pay gap. Gender pay gap in unadjusted as well as adjusted form is estimated using data on the individual level.

The results show that unadjusted gender pay gap proved to be stable at more than 20%. The authors found evidence that education widens gender pay gap implying that men have higher returns on education than women. Tertiary education proved to be the highest contributor to widening of gender pay gap. Results also show that there is strong sectoral and occupational segregation. Decomposition proved that only 21% of gender pay gap could be explained by observed characteristics. The unexplained part showed negative values, meaning women would have higher wages, if they had characteristics like men.

Structure of Earnings Survey data are published every four years; therefore the authors’ dataset from year 2018 might not completely reflect today's reality. Unfortunately, newer data are note available yet. Second, Structure of Earning Survey data do not contain variables representing social factors of respondents like marital status, number of children or labour market absence due to birth or childcare. Third, data used for this study do not contain firms that have less than 10 employees; therefore, considerable portion of the labour market is omitted.

Results of this study will help policymakers understand the roots and causes of the gender pay gap in Visegrad Group countries but addressing this issue requires further research.

Despite Bangladesh’s continued attempts, gender disparity in the workplace has long been a concern, and progress has been slow. Studies conducted earlier indicate that working women in Bangladesh experience an unwelcoming work environment, leading to unequal pay and limited opportunities for their career growth. Academic literature focuses little on the connection between gender and the physical work environment. This chapter focuses on the connection between the masculinist culture of organizations, how work is carried out, and workplaces are set up, illuminating the crucial role played by the built environment in maintaining gender equality. Infrastructure, spatial design, safety measures, amenities, and the biased culture often influence the obstacles to women’s long-term success in the workplace. This chapter investigates and comprehends the constraints female employees encounter in Bangladesh during their work by scrutinizing the influence of the physical space and the biased socio-psychological environment. As women’s long-term professional progress depends on how these elements are interrelated, improving the environment is the first step toward a fairer and more empowered work environment. A qualitative approach has been used in this study. Seventy-eight Bangladeshi graduate, working women have participated in this research. The results show that, regardless of efforts, the environment in Bangladeshi workplaces is inhospitable, directly affecting women’s careers. Building a welcoming workspace accommodating all genders is crucial for creating gender parity and promoting long-term professional growth. Therefore, this research suggests that the government should capitalize on successful efforts and investigate alternative techniques to improve this issue.

The authors illustrate that there are significant differences in the wage performance across companies in relation to the digital content of their production and training activities.

Using company-level data from three waves of the Continuing Vocational Training Survey (2005, 2010 and 2015), this paper provides an overview on European firms implementing training and the magnitude of their training effort.

The authors conduct a regression analysis documenting that a wage premium of 9% is associated with companies undertaking training and that an additional 8% is paid by firms arranging training for IT skills-intensive workers. The latter effect is pervasive across sectors and is not strictly related to industry exposure to the digital transformation.

The authors assess the wage effect of training, in relation to the digital content of firm production or job tasks, using a large set of European companies (112,000), from countries with different degree of specialisation and institutional setting. The analysis covers a significant period of time of the last wave of digitalisation (2005, 2010, 2015).