On March 18, 2025, the Fudan Institute for Global Public Policy (IGPP) organized the 68th lecture of the Fudan-LSE Lecture Series. Dr. Bo Meng from the Institute of Developing Economies – Japan External Trade Organization (IDE-JETRO) delivered a lecture on the theme of Trade in Value-Added vs. Trade in Factor Income: Applications in Global Value Chain Analysis, which was chaired by Associate Professor Haoqi Qian of IGPP.

Dr. Meng is a Senior Research Fellow at IDE-JETRO and serves as the Editorial Board Member of the World Trade Organization (WTO)’s Global Value Chain Development Report. He has previously worked as a policy analyst for the OECD, a visiting scholar of the United States International Trade Commission (USITC), a visiting senior researcher of Columbia Business School. His research interests encompass policy-oriented and disciplinary research on climate change economics and global value chains (GVCs).

At the beginning of the lecture, Dr. Meng used aircraft supply chains as examples to introduce the fundamental concepts of GVCs, their theoretical development, key research questions, and applications across different subfields. He also provided an overview of the biennial Global Value Chain Development Report, jointly published by the WTO, OECD, and IDE-JETRO.

Dr. Meng then used examples of the iPhone and U.S.-China trade to illustrate how relying solely on gross data can lead to misleading conclusions. While value-added trade can help mitigate biases, he argued that factor income trade accounting remains the most effective framework for assessing international competitiveness and impacts of various countries. Finally, Dr. Meng introduced the applications of the GVC approach in areas such as trade networks.

During the Q&A session, Dr. Meng addressed questions on the integration of GVC research with international aid and innovation R&D. He also discussed methodologies for identifying the actual control of multinational corporations.

On behalf of the IGPP, Associate Professor Qian presented a gift to Dr. Meng, and the lecture concluded successfully with a group photo.