About

Global value chains do not function as does the ideal market taught in Introductory Economics EC101. Firstly, most stages of global supply chains are not (and cannot be) perfectly competitive: for example, processors in rural areas have market power over farmers, large factories might have market power over workers due to long working hours and high commuting costs, large foreign buyers harness economies of scale in logistics, trading, branding etc. Secondly, contracts are highly incomplete: for example, contracts cannot guarantee a reliable supply or a reliable demand, nor that working conditions and/or environmental standards are met. Trust – and the long-term relationships built on it – is key along these chains.

The SharingGains project aims to understand how to create more efficient, equitable and sustainable supply chains in developing countries by developing methodologies, and collecting new data, that account for both market power and the role of trust. Trust and market power interact with each other in subtle ways which critically depend on context. Sharing Gains projects, therefore, are conducted in close partnership with a variety of stakeholders in the coffee and garments supply chains, leveraging context-specific knowledge and untapped sources of data to test solutions and ideas co-designed with our stakeholder partners.