The Call of the Pandemic: Rethinking Global Value Chains

The effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on global value chains has been pervasive. An all-time-high demand for ventilators, personal protective equipment such as masks and gowns, medicines, and other essential health supplies collided with supply shortages. Stringent lockdowns enforced by different countries at different times led to severe consequences for industrial supply chains. As the pandemic spread, few countries have been resilient enough to cope well with the pace of transformed supply and demand requirements. This policy brief explains how firms and countries need to critically evaluate their upstream supply chains and how public policy should support creating domestic core manufacturing capabilities that can help mitigate the effects of disasters