GLOBAL VALUE CHAINS, INNOVATION AND UPGRADING: A MICRODATA BASED STUDY OF ARGENTINIAN INDUSTRIAL FIRMS

ABSTRACT The debate on global value chains (GVC) has gained momentum recently, especially concerning the advantages and drawbacks for the countries that enter their orbit. Inspired by this discussion, this article examines the insertion of Argentine industrial firms in GVC using microdata from the Encuesta Nacional de Dinámica de Empleo e Innovación (ENDEI). The text begins with a discussion on the relations involving GVC, productive stages of the participating countries and the issue of innovation, and then looks at the Argentine manufacturing sector as allowed by the database. The results confirm, for Argentina, the postulations brought by the literature on the involvement profile of middle-income economies in CGV. Among the Argentine firms comprised in this database, some export dynamism has been observed in high and medium / high technology sectors, but an insertion based on assembly and processing, with limited technological endogenization, has prevailed.