Trade in Intangibles and A Global Value Chain-based View of International Trade and Global Imbalance


Prof. Xiaolan Fu, Oxford University

This paper aims to integrate the literature on technology, international trade and global value chains, and develop an analytical framework of global trade that integrates trade-in-intangibles and trade-in-goods in the context of globalisation and fragmentation of production activities and increasing trade in intangibles. Through in-depth discussions of the five modes through which trade-in-tangibles are carried out, it develops a framework of international trade statistics from the perspective of global value chains. It argues that the global trade imbalance should be discussed on the basis of a framework that fully incorporates the trade activities in the 21st century.Trade in Intangibles and A Global Value Chain-based View of International Trade and Global Imbalance



About the speaker

Xiaolan Fu is the Founding Director of the Technology and Management Centre for Development (TMCD), Professor of Technology and International Development and Fellow of Green Templeton College. She was appointed by the Secretary-General of the United Nations to the Ten-Member High Level Advisory Group of the UN Technology Facilitation Mechanism and to the Governing Council of the UN's Technology Bank for Least Developed Countries. She is also a member of the UN SDSN Leadership Council led by Jeffrey Sachs and a member of the Adivisory Board of UNU-MERIT.

Her research interests include innovation, technology and industrialisation; trade, foreign direct investment and economic development; emerging Asian economies; innovation and productivity in UK/US. She has published extensively in leading international journals independently or in collaboration with others. Her recent books include Innovation under the Radar (forthcoming), China's Path to Innovation, China’s Role in Global Economic Recovery and The Rise of Technological Power in the South. She is Editor-in-Chief of Journal of Chinese Economic and Business Studies, and serves on the Editorial Boards of Industrial and Corporate Change, International Journal of Technology Management, and four other international journals.

Prof Fu received large research grants from prestigious funding bodies including the European Commission, ESRC, EPSRC, British Academy, DFID, and the Cairncross Foundation. She has also received the European Commission EFMD Gate2Growth 2005 'European Best Paper' Award, Emerald Literati Network Awards for Excellence 2012 Outstanding Paper Award, and European Association of Management (EURAM) annual conference Innovation Strategic Interest Group 2017 Best Paper Award.

She has been consultant for UNDESA, UNCTAD, UNIDO, the World Bank, OECD, European Commission, ILO, the Commonwealth Secretariat, UKTI and the Chinese government. Prof Fu serves on the Advisory Expert Group of the OECD Global Investment Forum and the DFID/ESRC Economic Growth Directorate (DEGP), and is President of the Chinese Economic Association (Europe) and CEA (UK) in 2010-11. She currently serves on the Management Committee of the University of Oxford China Centre. She is also a Senior Research Associate at the University of Cambridge and University of Tsinghua, and a Visiting Professor at Fudan University. As a leading China expert, she has participated in various interviews and panel discussions on main stream media including BBC, Sky News, CCTV, CGTN, People's Daily, and China Daily. In 2014 she was invited to address the UN General Assembly on ‘Science, technology and innovation in developing countries’.

Prof Fu came to Oxford from the University of Cambridge, where she was a Senior Research Fellow. Before coming to the UK, she had five years’ work experience in the business sector in China before embarking on her academic career.



Venue: 1.23/1.24

Date: 04 June 2019

Time: 16:00 - 17:00  CEST


UNU-MERIT