Global inequality chains: integrating mechanisms of value distribution into analyses of global production

The global value chain (GVC) analytic, as currently conceived in the literature on global production, tracks ‘value added’ along commodity chains but does not interrogate where value comes from and where it goes. This tends to deflect narratives that relate to systemic inequalities and the mechanisms by which those inequalities are reproduced. We seek to remedy that defect in two ways. First, we demonstrate that assumptions in GVC analysis about the distribution of value creation along the chain, which are generally adopted to support value chain ‘upgrading’ as a policy prescription, may be unreliable. Second, we combine the analytic with the emerging ‘global wealth chain’ analytic regarding tax outcomes, for this will enable us to map contestation over value capture between capital, labour and the state along the chain. We call this synthetic analytic the ‘global inequality chain’ (GIC). While we deploy Marxian value theory to provide a framework for this schematic mapping exercise, we emphasize that the GIC is amenable to other value-theoretical frameworks (provided such frameworks are objective rather than empirically reliant on realization in the form of prices). We illustrate the utility of the GIC by applying it to the topics of global gender inequality and corporate tax reform.