New Project on Global Affiliate Structure of German Firms and their Resilience against Shocks

18th July 2025
KCG Secretary
Further KCG Projects
Further KCG Projects
For decades, the world experienced extensive trade liberalization and deepening globalization, during which firms built and expanded their global production networks. However, this trend began to reverse following the 2008 financial crisis, as national policies have increasingly shifted toward protectionism. This trend has been further intensified due to natural disasters, climate change, the Covid-19 pandemic, and, particularly, geopolitical events such as the Russian invasion of Ukraine and the rising tensions between the US and China[...]

New Policy Brief on Significance and Policy Implications of EU-U.S. Services Trade

17th July 2025
KCG Secretary
Publications
Publications
Trade in services is an important component of international trade and is becoming increasingly more important with growth rates exceeding the rates with which goods trade increases. This is also true in the bilateral U.S. – EU relationship: Trade in services, and especially trade in digitally deliverable services, is a highly important element of the economic relations between the U.S. and the EU. And it is growing much faster than goods trade between the two economies. Despite its importance, trade in services has received much less attention in political and public discussions on the transatlantic trade relationship[...]

Special Economic Zones Policies Contribute to Urbanization and Inclusive Growth in Africa

1st July 2025
KCG Secretary
Publications
Publications
Fishing boats on the shore of Cape Coast, Ghana
There has been an increasing number of Special Economic Zones (SEZ) in Africa since the early 1990s. While there were only around 20 SEZs in the early 1990s in Africa, the number amounted to more than 200 zones all over Africa in 2021. These zones are established to “promote local economic development and reduce regional disparities” (Abagna et al., 2025: 1). In policy debates and academic research, little attention has been paid so far to the impact of SEZ on the households’ welfare development in Africa[...]

Bring the boys back home: The impact of foreign divestments on local firms

27th June 2025
KCG Secretary
Authors: Holger Görg, Haiou Mao, Nigel Driffield (The World Economy, forthcoming)

Divestments by foreign multinationals are an important phenomenon that is largely neglected in the literature. We use firm level panel data from China to estimate the impact of such divestments on the performance of domestic firms in the local economy. To the best of our knowledge, there is no empirical study that has looked at these effects[...]

Germany’s Path Forward: Building on Leading Edges to Counter China’s Challenges

24th March 2025
KCG Secretary
Public Contributions
Public Contributions
China has made substantial economic progress during the last decades, shifting towards advanced manufacturing and technologies. Chinese firms in key sectors have received massive subsidies which enable them to produce at lower costs and to better compete in the global markets. One key example here is the car industry, particularly the production of electric vehicles (EVs)[...]

Trade Policy in Turbulent Times (in German)

24th March 2025
KCG Secretary
Publications
Publications
Deutschland sieht sich massiven handelspolitischen Herausforderungen gegenüber. In den vergangenen Jahren ging es dabei vor allem um den Umgang mit China hinsichtlich der Reduzierung von Abhängigkeiten sowohl auf der Export- als auch auf der Importseite. Seit der Amtsübernahme des neuen US-Präsidenten Donald Trump ist jedoch auch klar, dass die Handelsbeziehungen mit den USA wegen angekündigter Zölle und dem damit verbundenen Angriff auf die globale Handelsordnung zunehmend problematisch werden. Das alles findet vor dem Hintergrund einer Wachstumsschwäche der deutschen Wirtschaft statt[...]

“Sustainable Global Supply Chains” Annual Report 2024: Decent Work in Global Supply Chains

24th March 2025
KCG Secretary
Publications
Publications
The Annual Report 2024 brings together recent and timely research on “Decent Work in Global Supply Chains”. The report consists of 10 concise chapters, written by the hosts and members of the Research Network Sustainable Global Supply Chains, which distil the latest research on key issues related to achieving decent work and advancing labour standards in global supply chains. Central themes include the impacts of GVCs on decent work, how GVCs can be leveraged for better jobs, and the crucial role of local labour regimes—such as workers’ bargaining power — and structural transformation processes in shaping equitable outcomes[...]