Investing in innovation and skills

This paper synthesises the main policy implications of OECD work focusing on the interplay between participation and positioning in global value chains (GVCs), employment demand and supply and workforce’s skills endowment. They relate to: the way innovation, technology and participation in GVCs shape employment in routine intensive and non-routine jobs; the relationship between participation in GVCs and polarisation of employment; the way the skill composition of a country’s workforce – both the type of skills and their distribution – shapes specialisation and positioning along GVCs; and the complementarities emerging between GVC participation and investment in knowledge-based capital, especially organisational capital and ICT.