Global supply chains : why they emerged, why they matter, and where they are going

Global supply chains have transformed the world. They revolutionised development options facing poor nations – now they can join supply chains rather than having to invest decades in building their own. Offshoring of labour-intensive manufacturing stages and the attendant international mobility of technology launched era-defining growth in emerging markets – a change that fosters and is fostered by domestic policy reform. Historic income gaps are narrowing as the North de-industrialises and the South industrialises -- a reversal-of-fortunes that constitutes perhaps the most momentous global economic change in the last 100 years. Global supply chains, however, are themselves rapidly evolving. The change is in…