Demand and supply exposure through global value chains: Euro-Mediterranean countries during COVID

This paper tries to examine how the COVID-19 shock affects different countries through their regional integration and their exposure to Global Value Chains (GVCs). Using input–output tables from the EORA dataset, our contribution is threefold. First, we conceptually revise the approache to analyse input–output relationships and underline the difference between the bilateral flow of value added and trade and distinguish between the producers and consumers of value-added. Second, we distinguish between the supply and demand channels through which these countries can be affected by the disruptions in GVCs. Third, we apply this empirical exercise on an understudied region, namely the Mediterranean region that is characterised by its involvement in several trade agreements that might boost their integration into GVCs. Our main findings show that, first, most of the countries have relatively larger backward GVC linkages than forward ones. Second, in the Northern shore of the Mediterranean, Italy and France are net suppliers of value added since they produce more value-added absorbed abroad than the foreign value-added they consume. Third, our results highlight also the limited integration between Southern shore partners, whose integration is almost completely driven by linkages with Southern European developed countries.