UNIDO-IfW-KCG Joint Article about Risk, Resilience and Recalibration in Global Value Chains

22nd December 2020
KCG Secretary
Publications
Publications
Current global value chains (GVCs) are highly efficient, specialized and interconnected, but they are also highly vulnerable to global risks. The high vulnerability to global risks was made clear particularly through the COVID-19 pandemic that caused supply-side disruptions in the first quarter of 2020, as China and other Asian economies were hit by the outbreak of the virus which later spread globally, leading to business closures around the world[...]

KCG Working Paper No. 22: Why are Africa’s Female Entrepreneurs not Playing the Export Game? Evidence from Ghana

7th October 2020
KCG Secretary
Publications
Publications
Authors: Charles Ackah, Holger Görg, Aoife Hanley, and Cecília Hornok

We explore the export performance of Africa’s underperforming female entrepreneurs, using the Ghanaian ISSER-IGC panel, a comprehensive dataset of manufacturing firms for 2011–2015. Uniquely, the data provides information about the severity of key business constraints, across both male and female entrepreneurs[...]

A New KCG Paper on Foreign Trade and Sustainable Business Practices in Ghana is Published Today

5th October 2020
KCG Secretary
News
News
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Foreign trade and sustainability is high on the political agenda. German and international policy-makers undertake increasing efforts to use trade policy more effectively for sustainable development purposes. A growing toolbox is meant to facilitate these policy aims, including sustainability chapters in trade agreements, sustainable value chains and sustainability standards. Meanwhile, scientific evidence on how trading activities impact on firms’ sustainable behaviour is limited[...]

A New KCG Project on the Development of Global Value Chains in the Coffee Sector

24th August 2020
KCG Secretary
News
News
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International trade is widely recognised as a key driver of economic growth, poverty reduction and societal development. The United Nations (UN) thus considers international trade as an important instrument for individual countries and the world as a whole to achieve the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals. The particular attention that the UN gives to the developing countries in this regard makes it clear that some of these countries still lie strongly behind as to their integration into the international trade and thus are farther away from benefiting from trade for their development[...]

Görg: Blockchain Technologies can Help Improve Transparency of Global Supply Chains

23rd July 2020
KCG Secretary
Public Contributions
Public Contributions
The German Federal Government is working on a Supply Chain Law that will require German companies with more than 500 employees to better ensure that both human rights as well as environmental sustainability standards along their supply chains are well protected and/or followed. The Federal Minister of Labour and Social Affairs, Hubertus Heil, expects that the Draft Law can be passed by the cabinet in August and thus can enter the legislative process soon with the goal of being effective in 2021[...]

The Ethics of Workplace Health Promotion

10th July 2020
KCG Secretary
Authors: Eva Kuhn, Sebastian Müller, Ludger Heidbrink, and Alena Buyx (Public Health Ethics, 2020, 13(3): 234–246)
Companies increasingly offer their employees the opportunity to participate in voluntary Workplace Health Promotion programmes. Although such programmes have come into focus through national and regional regulation throughout much of the Western world, their ethical implications remain largely unexamined[...]