LAUSR

The aim of this paper is to examine the impact of international production fragmentation on the trade performance of the Italian districts (IDs). We suppose that the high heterogeneity in export shown by the different IDs in the last years can be correlated to their position in the Global Value Chains. To assess this claim at first, we observe how the share of trade in parts and components, on the total districts’ trade, changed over time, defining five different districts profiles according to their import and export composition. Then, we construct our indicator of position in GVCs, considering for every district its PageRank centrality in the global input–output network. We test the relation between PageRank centrality and export performance with a panel data analysis from 1995 to 2011. The results suggest that a given position in the GVCs had a significant impact on the districts’ export performance.