“Made in Germany”? Labour, wages and carbon footprints of consumption and production of the motor vehicles industry

Production is fragmented in global production networks, and consumption relies on global markets. Their impacts and profits are unevenly distributed in the international division of labour. Such complexity and entanglement call for footprint approaches that capture these regional and sectoral distributions. We calculate through Multi-Regional Input-Output Analysis (MRIOA) the working time, compensation of employees, and GHG emissions and their regional and sectoral distribution in two global value chains related to the Motor vehicles industry in Germany (1995–2020): (1) the Supply system of global Motor Vehicles Industry to Germany, which provides vehicles and replacement parts to Germany and (2) the German Final production system of Motor Vehicles Industry, which manufactures “made in Germany” vehicles sold in global markets. This unravels the uneven distribution of profits and impacts through global trade and enables different perspectives on social and environmental responsibility of consumers and producers. In both systems, but more intensively in the Final production system, Germany kept most of the compensation of employees while generating less than half of GHG emissions and less than a third of employment. The whole supply-chain production of “made in Germany” vehicles generated 73% of salaries in Germany, while it relied on 63% of emissions and 54% of working time in upstream processes abroad in 2018. In terms of sectors, the Motor vehicles industry obtained about half of the salaries with 5% of emissions in both systems. Producing a vehicle in Germany requires approximately 1400 working hours, the equivalent of one year of labour by a German worker. • Salaries due to vehicle production (73%) and demand (44%) in Germany stayed in Germany. • Proportionally, fewer emissions (37%–19%) and jobs (46%–21%) happened in Germany. • The Motor vehicles industry obtained almost half of the salaries in both value chains. • The motor vehicles industry generated 5% of emissions in both systems. • The labour footprint of a German vehicle were 1366 h of paid work in 2018.