GVCs in Central Europe – a perspective of automotive sector after COVID-19.
Research and teaching project co-financed by the Visegrad Fund The team of the Institute of International Economics implements this project in cooperation with scientists from:
- University of Economics in Bratislava, Slovakia
- Ekonomická univerzita v Bratislave (EUBA)
- University of Economics, Prague, Czechia
- Vysoká škola ekonomická v Praze (VŠE)
- Centre for Economic and Regional Studies (CERS) in Budapest, Hungary
- Közgazdaság- és Regionális Tudományi Kutatóközpont (CERS)
Project details:
The V4 countries are highly integrated within global value chains (GVCs); their backward participation decisively exceeds the forward one. They are mostly involved in activities generating low value added and faced with long-term stagnation in creating value. This especially concerns automotive industries. In order to alter the current status quo and gain benefits from participation in GVCs, it is necessary for the V4 to foster innovation abilities and stabilize business climate. The outbreak of COVID-19 posed both threats (disruption in production processes, demand shocks) and opportunities (re-definition of MNEs policies on FDI localization) that need to be investigated. Moreover, results of previous studies should be revised. We intend to answer the following questions:
- To what extent do V4 companies participate in the automotive GVCs?
- What are the likely impacts of COVID-19 on GVC participation of V4 businesses (i.a. SMEs)?
- How to improve the position of national SMEs in automotive GVCs?
International trade in post COVID-19 era will probably have to face some unique deglobalization effects of the previous GVCs expansion. UNCTAD (2020) stresses strengthened regional value chains as a priority to mitigate the consequences of pandemic and deglobalization effects. The said industry turns out to be seriously affected by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Using the latest data and trends, our project not only brings scientific results confronted with research on a more general level (EU, euro area, etc.), but also in terms of improving the place in GVC, shares success stories and lessons learned from the neighboring countries of the CEE region.
In addition, we intend to internationalize the results of educational processes at universities through guest lectures, a set of thematic case studies, and the creation of a new research network.