Stacey Frederick examines roles of the business environment in global value chains

Stacey Frederick, senior fellow at the Duke Center for International Development, authored the report, “Roles of the Business Environment in Global Value Chains,” for the Donor Committee for Enterprise Development (DCED) Business Environment Working Group.

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The technical report examines how the business environment can support positive integration and upgrading of formal firms in global value chains (GVCs).

“This report addresses the role of the business environment and reform regarding attracting lead firms and supporting positive effects from investment, increasing the quality and supply of domestic firms, facilitating linkages between foreign and domestic firms, and supporting integration into new chains via regional trade agreements,” Frederick writes in the executive summary. “These are discussed in this report as they relate to factors affecting competitiveness in GVCs, including collaboration and institutionalization, trade and investment, productive capacity and human capital development, and infrastructure and business climate.”

Frederick worked at the Duke Global Value Chains Center from 2005 to 2021 as a research scientist and later as the director. Her research involves using global value chain analysis to identify economic, social and environmental upgrading opportunities for countries and firms in a variety of industries, including textiles and apparel, electronics/digital/ICT, medical/pharma, automotive, and several other manufacturing, agriculture, service, and technology-based sectors. She has used the framework to analyze issues ranging from employment generation to trade policy impacts for global organizations including the World Bank, the ILO, the UN Statistics Division, and UNIDO, regional development banks, as well as several national governments.

Access the report