Significant improvements in measuring and understanding global value chains have been made through international databases such as OECD’s Trade in Value-added (TiVA) database.

However, these metrics are constructed to provide insights at the national level and not subnationally. Given the empirical evidence that globalisation has had strong effects on certain regions, the OECD develops new measures and analysis of the integration of regions in Global Value Chains.

The project combines several components. In a pilot, the OECD, supported by the UK Department for Business and Trade (DBT) and the UK Office for National Statistics (ONS), integrates UK regions into OECD’s Inter-Country Input-Output Tables (ICIO), building on granular microdata. The integrated tables will allow to perform global value chain analyses for regions across the United Kingdom accounting for direct spillover effects across economic activities.

The pilot is complemented by identifying the current position of European regions in Global Value Chains based on existing subnational ICIOs developed by the European Commission’s Joint Research Centre following a “top down” approach.

• A technical document establishing the methodology for generating integrated, subnational Input-Output Tables for the United Kingdom.
• Subnational supply-use and input/output tables integrated into the ICIO framework and subnational Trade in Value Added indicators.
• Two OECD reports, one analysing the position of UK regions and the other that of European regions in the global economy, identifying key strengths, weaknesses, and opportunities within regions and sectors.