FOR 5918:  International Division of Labour (IDoL): New Challenges for Workers, Firms, and Policy Makers

• Subject Area: Social and Behavioural Sciences
• Term: since 2026
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 550491480

New developments in international trade have changed the costs and benefits of globalization. With a deeper international division of labour, the scope for welfare gains from trade has widened considerably. At the same time, the scope for distributional conflicts within and between countries has increased as well, providing new challenges for policy intervention, which - as argued by many - is needed in order to counter increasing resistance to globalization and the new wave of economic nationalism observed in the recent past. In this research unit, we will shed light on three factors that shape major challenges to globalization: First, we will analyse new forms and dimensions of international trade, such as the emergence, deepening, and reorganization of global value chains, the surge of international trade in services, and the role of large “superstar” firms in the changing world economy. Second, we will explore the role of major changes of technology fuelled by computerization, automation, and robotisation in the context of transforming international trade. And third, it is an important task of our research unit to identify the winners and losers of globalization, to shed light on how the dividing line separating the two groups has shifted over time, and to discuss suitable measures of policy intervention that allow larger parts of society to participate in the overall gains from trade.

• DFG Programme: Research Units
• International Connection: Austria

Projects

• Coordination Funds (Applicant Egger, Hartmut )
• Data and Research Infrastructure Project – Novel Data Sources and Measurement of Trade Barriers for Empirical Research -- Part of the Research Unit International Division of Labour (IDoL): New Challenges for Workers, Firms, and Policy Makers (Applicant Flach, Lisandra )
• Firm Organisation (Applicants Eckel, Carsten ;  Egger, Hartmut ;  Flach, Lisandra )
• Global Value Chains - Part of the Research Unit International Division of Labour (IDoL): New Challenges for Workers, Firms, and Policy Makers (Applicants Egger, Hartmut ;  Flach, Lisandra ;  Kreickemeier, Udo )
• Innovation and Technology (Applicants Egger, Hartmut ;  Kreickemeier, Udo )
• Services -- Part of the Research Unit International Division of Labour (IdoL): New Challenges for Workers, Firms, and Policy Makers (Applicants Eckel, Carsten ;  Unger, Florian )
• Superstar Firms (Part of the Research Unit International Division of Labour (IDoL): New Challenges for Workers, Firms, and Policy Makers (Applicants Eckel, Carsten ;  Unger, Florian )
• Taxation and Redistribution (Applicants Kreickemeier, Udo ;  Unger, Florian )

• Spokesperson: Professor Dr. Hartmut Egger