questions: Who benefits? How should the benefits
be calculated? Are the gains equally spread
between the participants? Are firms being upgraded
or downgraded in the process, for
upgrading is an essential aspect of ensuring a
sustainable trajectory of economic development?
What drives upgrading through the value
chain? In short, what is facilitating or inhibiting
growth and the distribution of the social
benefits in developing countries engaging in
global markets? Although in this paper we will
not be using the value chain framework fully,
we draw heavily on it to analyze the dynamic
integration of low-wage producers into global
product markets by focusing on the perspectives
of global buyers, as well as on the experience
of global furniture producers. (We do
not, however, address the impact on other
producers in the wood and furniture value
chain, nor focus on income distribution).