On 29 March, The Vienna Institute for International Economic Studies hosted a research meeting aimed at discussing the first TWIN SEEDS findings.
On-going research in Wok Package 1 is focusing on the change in the dynamics of the twin seeds, underpinning trends in international trade and production organisation: technological transformations and geopolitical and policy shifts.
The research analysed different aspects of technological transformations, such as ICT diffusion, digitalisation, robot adoption, organisational innovation and their influence on global value chains (GVCs).
Policy shifts have also been considered from different perspectives, with works focused on multilateral, bilateral and unilateral trade agreements, but also on other kinds of trade barriers, like tariff and non-tariff measures.
Preliminary results showed a complex picture, where these effects are often reinforced (or weakened) by specific characteristics of both the sectors and the countries involved.
For instance, findings demonstrated that bilateral trade agreements tend to reinforce global production networks, but with a heterogeneous intensity, according to the stage of development of the hosting country.
More information on our research will be available soon on the TWIN SEEDS website.