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White Hats or Don Quixotes? Human Rights Vigilantes in the Global Economy

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Author Info
Kimberly Ann Elliott
Richard Freeman

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Abstract

With the continuing expansion of global economic integration, labor standards in developingcountries have become a hot button issue. One result has been a proliferation of efforts to usethe market to put pressure directly on multinational corporations to improve wages andworking conditions in their overseas operations and to insist that their suppliers do so as well.This paper analyzes the dynamics of these efforts in terms of a 'market for standards' in whichconsumers, stimulated by human rights activists, demand that corporations improve workingconditions in supplier factories. The paper presents evidence that such a consumer demandexists and analyzes the incentives corporations face to respond to it. It examines the nature ofthe critical intermediary role played by activists in stimulating consumer demands andassesses the outcomes in the major anti-sweatshop campaigns of the 1990s. The paper alsoaddresses the limitations of such consumer-based campaigns and the concern expressed bysome that these activist campaigns may do more harm than good, by deterring investment inand trade with poor countries. It concludes with an overall assessment of when ¿doing good¿actually does good.

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Paper provided by Centre for Economic Performance, LSE in its series CEP Discussion Papers with number dp0638.

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Date of creation: May 2004
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Handle: RePEc:cep:cepdps:dp0638

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  1. Richard B. Freeman, 1997. "Spurts in Union Growth: Defining Moments and Social Processes," NBER Working Papers 6012, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  2. Kahneman, Daniel & Tversky, Amos, 1979. "Prospect Theory: An Analysis of Decision under Risk," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 47(2), pages 263-91, March. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  3. Freeman, Richard B, 1997. "Working for Nothing: The Supply of Volunteer Labor," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 15(1), pages S140-66, January. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  4. Brown, D.K. & Dearorff, A.V. & Stern, R.M., 1993. "International Labor Standards and Trade: A Theoretical Analysis," Working Papers 333, Research Seminar in International Economics, University of Michigan.
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  1. Martha A. Starr, 2006. "Macroeconomic dimensions of social economics: Saving, the stock market, and pension systems," Working Papers 2006-09, American University, Department of Economics. [Downloadable!]
  2. Drusilla K. Brown & Thomas Downes & Karen Eggleston & Ratna Kumari, 2006. "Human Resource Management Technology Diffusion Through Global Supply Chains: Productivity and Workplace Based Health Care," Discussion Papers Series, Department of Economics, Tufts University 0616, Department of Economics, Tufts University. [Downloadable!]
  3. David Weil, 2003. "Individual Rights and Collective Agents: The Role of Old and New Workplace Institution in the Regulation of Labor Markets," NBER Working Papers 9565, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  4. Drusilla K. Brown & Alan V. Deardorff & Robert M Stern, 2002. "The Effects of Multinational Production on Wages and Working Conditions in Developing Countries," Working Papers 483, Research Seminar in International Economics, University of Michigan. [Downloadable!]
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  5. Shareen Hertel & Lyle Scruggs & C. Patrick Heidkamp, 2007. "Human Rights and Public Opinion: From Attitudes to Action," Economic Rights Working Papers 3, University of Connecticut, Human Rights Institute, revised Apr 2008. [Downloadable!]
  6. Cletus C. Coughlin, 2002. "The controversy over free trade: the gap between economists and the general public," Review, Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, issue Jan., pages 1-22. [Downloadable!]
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