The Participation of Italian Firms in Global Value Chains: An Empirical Assessment of Sourcing in the Fashion Industry

This paper explores the participation of Italian enterprises in Global Value Chains, by analyzing the sourcing behavior of a stratified sample of firms headquartered in Lombardy and Tuscany and belonging to the fashion industry. Drawing on survey interviews, we provide new empirical evidence to portray final good producers and discuss their solutions to input procurement, as shaped by ownership and location decisions. As for ownership, our firms rely on independent input suppliers the most, instead of manufacturing the needed components; as for location, we document a strong preference for domestic rather than imported inputs. This suggests that Italian enterprises belonging to the fashion industry actively participate in value chains; however, these chains appear to be more local than global. Detailed descriptive statistics and simple econometric regressions account for this evidence from a microeconomics/international economics perspective.