TY  - JOUR
UR  - http://doi.org/10.1016/j.econlet.2017.12.038
JF  - Economics Letters
N2  - In this paper, we investigate at the firm-level where value is added along supply chains on a sample of about 2 million firms in the European Union. In line with the hypothesis of a ?smile curve?, we detect a non-linear U-shaped relationship between the value added content of a firm and its distance from final consumption. Tasks at the early and late stages of the supply chains generate higher value added, possibly due to a higher knowledge-intensity, after controlling for firm heterogeneity. Importantly, our work shows that it is possible to exploit firm-level databases for an empirical microfoundation of value generation, which is useful for understanding the possibly unequal benefits of participating in global value chains.
KW  - Global value chains; Firm level; Smile curve; Downstreamness; Value added
AV  - none
ID  - eprints3855
TI  - The smile curve at the firm level: Where value is added along supply chains
Y1  - 2018///
SP  - 38
A1  - Rungi, Armando
A1  - Del Prete, Davide
SN  - 01651765
VL  - 164
PB  - Elsevier
EP  - 42
ER  -