The authors provide new evidence on the participation of firms within Global Value Chains (GVCs) for a large pool of MENA countries included in the World Bank Enterprise Surveys (WBES). Making use of several firm-level GVC participation indices, a positive association with firm productivity gains was found. Based on this result, they further investigate the complexity of GVC relationships and examine how sector/country connectivity affects firm productivity.
The results indicate a positive effect of the connectivity of the sector on the Total Factor Productivity (TFP) of firms. Results remain robust after the authors control for the endogeneity between firm productivity and participation in GVCs.