COVID-19 and Global Value Chains Participation: Export Performance of Croatian Firms

Abstract For the last two-three years, the disruptions of the GVC caused by the COVID-19 pandemic have forced the business sector to restructure and adjust, sometimes very costly and painful. Moreover, with the recent war in Ukraine foreseeable negative implications, it is very certain that large-scale disruptions in the global economic trade and investment flows, and ultimately in the GVC, will dictate the survival and sustainability of business in many economic sectors in the years to come. The main goal of this paper is twofold. First, to review the existing research on the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on global trends affecting the current reconfiguring and reshaping of the GVC. Second, to analyse the characteristics of Croatian firms that recorded a decrease in their (indirect and direct) exports in the COVID-19 period by performing a logit model and utilising the World Bank’s Enterprise Survey 2019, backed up by the Enterprise Surveys Follow-Up on COVID-19 (3 rounds up to now).