This paper unpacks the role of the domestic content of imports as a novel source of policy interdependence along the global supply chain. We show how a rise in local contents embodied in imports can skew national trade policy preferences, and pull upstream and downstream countries in asymmetric...

This paper uses a sample of 1243 international firms for the period 2013-2017 to analyse the effect that a greater presence of women in management teams has on business behaviour in relation to labour and human rights, and the mediating role of improved performance in these rights on corporate...

Multinational enterprises (MNEs) increasingly impose "Responsible Sourcing" (RS) standards on their suppliers worldwide, including requirements on worker compensation, benefits and working conditions. Are these policies just "hot air" or do they impact exposed suppliers and their workers? What...

The concept of globalization is inextricably vast and has many contexts related to it. Globalization can be defined under factors like economics, socio-economic, cultural, technological, etc. In other words, globalization is a term that repercussions numerous interrelated issues with respect to...

Labour provisions in trade agreements have been criticised for minimal effectiveness in improving employment conditions. Five recent cases point to some benefits and to the lessons on when and how labour provisions can be effective. They make a difference in particular economic and political...

The question of whether global norms are experiencing a crisis allows for two concurrent answers. From a facticity perspective, certain global norms are under crisis, given their world-wide lack of implementation and effectiveness. From a validity perspective, however, a crisis is not obvious,...

The article presents a novel normative model of shared responsibility for remedying unjust labor conditions and protecting workers’ rights in global supply chains. While existing literature on labor governance in the globalized economy tends to focus on empirical and conceptual investigations,...

Wage inequality does not fully capture differences in job quality. Jobs also differ along other key dimensions, including the prevalence of labor rights violations. We construct novel measures of labor violation rates using data from federal agencies. Within local industries over time, a 10%...

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) has become an integral part of many companies' business strategy. A detailed analysis of 579 RTAs, including 305 agreements currently in force and notified to the WTO (as of December 2020), reveals that a limited but increasing number of RTAs, namely 65...

This chapter deals with the question of whether labour standards are less relevant or more relevant for the new world of work which is vastly different from the old world of work when most labour standards were first established. The various rationales for labour standards are first outlined....

Stellungnahme zu dem Gesetzentwurf der Regierung des Saarlandes - Gesetz über die Sicherung von Sozialstandards, Tariftreue und fairen Löhnen bei der Vergabe öffentlicher Aufträge im Saarland (Saarländisches Tariftreue- und Fairer-Lohn-Gesetz - STFLG) - Drucksache 16/1777

A growing number of trade agreements have taken an important step toward ensuring consistency by referring to - and hence incorporating the legal content of - ILO instruments. On its face, this uniform reference suggests an increasing alignment between the ILO's international labor standards...

Business representatives and union leaders in highly industrialised countries often accuse the governments of less-developed countries of practising social dumping in the sense of deliberately neglecting work-place safety legislation, co-determination rights and other fringe benefits which...

The rules governing trade and capital flows have been at the center of controversy as globalization has proceeded. One reason is the belief that trade and capital flows have massive effects on the labor market -- either positive, per the claims of international financial institutions and free...

In a stylized model of multinational firms choosing host locations for their global value chains, host-country governments choose the strength of collective-bargaining rights that allow their workers to receive a share of the resulting quasi-rents. Each government must trade off the direct...

How should the issue of domestic labor standards be handled in the GATT/ WTO? This question is part of a broader debate over the appropriate scope of international economic institutions such as the GATT, where member-countries are considering proposals for a new round of n3 negotiations that...

Wage inequality does not fully capture differences in job quality. Jobs also differ along other key dimensions, including the prevalence of labor rights violations. We construct novel measures of labor violation rates using data from federal agencies. Within local industries over time, a 10%...

The BRICS countries have aspirations to achieve sustainable development in their economies and environmental protection. These aspirations have an important social aspect in the area of employment protection as it relates to ensuring fair development. In order to establish national standards for...

Social policies, particularly environmental and labour issues, are not new to trade policy fora including the GATT. However, they are likely to have a more prominent role in trade policy discussions in the years ahead for the new World Trade Organization. Many developing countries perceive the...

This study examines the effectiveness of the EU’s efforts to improve labour standards among its neighbouring countries through its market integration-based regulatory governance approach. We consider the European Neighbourhood Policy as a critical case for assessing the prospects and...

To what extent must nations cede control over their economic and social policies if global efficiency is to be achieved in an interdependent world? This question is at the center of the debate over the future role of GATT (and its successor, the WTO) in the realm of labor and environmental...

This paper reviews the theoretical arguments for and against linking international labor standards to trade. Based on theory alone it is difficult to generalize about the effect of labor standards on efficiency and equity. Some economists have argued that international labor standards are merely...

This paper discusses how an industrialized country could defend the wages and social benefits of its unskilled workers against wage competition from immigrants. It shows that fixing social standards harms the workers and that fixing social replacement incomes implies migration into unemployment....

This open access book explores the role of the ILO (International Labour Organization) in building global social governance from multiple and mutually complementary perspectives. It explores the impact of this UN´s oldest agency, founded in 1919, on the transforming world of work in a global...

The development and expansion of information and communication technologies (ICTs) has had far-reaching consequences for governance and the world of work, including how labour administrations and inspectorates manage and deliver services. Labour inspection is an essential part of labour...

This paper analyses the impact of non-preferential trade liberalization and exposure to globalization on "adequate earnings" in the Mexican manufacturing industries between 2003 and 2020, using data from the National Survey of Occupation and Employment and from the annual surveys of...

The study examines the effects of trade liberalization on employment and the labour market in Mexico's manufacturing industry. The analysis places special emphasis on assessing the extent to which the industry's distinct trade performance is accompanied by an improvement in labour conditions...

This paper documents the emergence and growth of digital labour markets in Eastern Europe. It shows that the development of two types of digital work – online work through online labour platforms and offline work mediated by mobile apps – have a different history, root causes and dynamics....

In the past two decades, bilateral and regional trade agreements with labour provisions have proliferated rapidly. Consequently, labour standards have become more decentralized across the globe as various States use them in varying forms, and with various effects, within international trade. One...