In recent decades, production processes of intermediate and final products have been increasingly fragmented across countries in what are called global value chains (GVCs). GVCs may involve companies in one country outsourcing stages of production to unrelated entities in other countries, multinational enterprises (MNEs) offshoring stages of production to units of the MNE overseas, or both. GVCs can also involve completely independent companies merely sourcing their parts from whichever upstream company may be the most competitive, with no control arrangement necessarily involved. The changing global trade environment and the changes in firms’ behavior have raised new and more complicated issues for policy makers and have made it difficult for them to understand the extent and operations of GVCs and their spillover effects on national and local economies.

To improve the understanding, measurement, and valuation of GVCs, the Innovation Policy Forum at the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine convened a workshop, Innovation, Global Value Chains, and Globalization Measurement May 5-7, 2021. This proceedings has been prepared by the workshop rapporteurs as a factual summary of what occurred at the workshop.