The Governance of the Global Factory: Location and Control of World Economic Activity

Recent years have witnessed major changes in the global location of economic activity, with the emerging economies assuming greater shares relative to the advanced economies. These developments have led many authors to refer to the idea of the global factory. But little attention has been given to who has control over the geographically dispersed activities—or, to put it another way, about the governance of the global factory. Have the changes in the global location of economic activity come about primarily through the growth of locally owned firms in the emerging economies, or through increased FDI by MNEs from the advanced economies, or through the proliferation of outsourcing arrangements coordinated by firms in the advanced economies? These control/governance issues have profound implications for the capture of the profits/rents earned in global value chains, and hence for the global distribution of income. This paper explores these issues, and considers who has benefited most from the contemporary phase of globalization.