The European regions in the global value chains: New results with new data

This article contains the methodology and main results related to the update and extension of the widest interregional input–output tables for the entire EU27, UK and the European Free Trade Association (EFTA) countries. This work continues the outstanding effort developed in the past years regarding the estimation and analysis of different multiregional input–output (MRIO) databases at the country level (world input–output database, EXIOBASE, ICIO, FIGARO, etc.) and the MRIO tables developed for the European Union (EU) at the NUTS2 level. The main contribution consists of updating and extending the current EUREGIO collection to obtain a EUREGIO table for 2017, which will be referred (NUTS‐2 Rev.2016) for all the EU27 + UK + EFTA countries and will be embedded in the new FIGARO multicountry 2017. Such effort was developed in the context of the ESPON‐IRIE project. This article summarises the methodology used and compares the results obtained with the ones of the main benchmarks, providing an analysis of the national and regional participation in the global value chains (GVCs). The main results suggest that, on average, 65% of value added is embodied in the goods and services sold to the same NUTS‐2 region, 16% is embodied in the ones sold to regions in the same country and the remaining 20% is exported (to other countries). Exploring the heterogeneity within these figures can also be seen that the variety is higher across regions than across sectors. Our analysis suggests that, to a large extent, the heterogeneous participation of EU27 + UK + EFTA regions in the GVCs is explained by their sectoral structure more than by the regional idiosyncratic characteristics. Such results open the floor for the correct design of industrial policies, embedded in the smart specialisation paradigm.