Upstreamness and Downstreamness Economic Activities of Iran in the Global Value Chain

This paper focuses on the fragmentation of the production stages in a related production process. Comparing alternative technologies that produce similar goods, one with fewer production stages and the other with a greater number requires a holistic perspective for the entire production sequence. What matters is not only the strength of production links but also the length of the links, determined by the number of production stages. In this study, we use the 2016 Inter-Country Input-Output (ICIO) table with a focus on the Iranian economy, covering 42 activities and 68 countries and Rest of the World. To achieve this, we concentrate on the global output supply chain and input demand chains, specifically considering Iran. We use the output upstreamness (OU) measure and input downstreamness (ID) measure to quantitatively determine the relative positions of Iran s economic activities along the global output supply chain and input demand chain, respectively. This study provides insights into countries with the highest and lowest (OU) and (ID) indicators, relating them respectively to industrial and agricultural activities. These indicators illustrate that Iran s role as a major supplier of natural resources, particularly in activities such as oil and natural gas extraction, is well explained.