IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/iis/dispap/iiisdp385.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

A Race to the Bottom in Labour Standards? An Empirical Investigation

Author

Listed:
  • Ronald B. Davies

    (University College Dublin; Institute for International Integration Studies, Trinity College Dublin; CES-Ifo)

  • Krishna Chaitanya Vadlamannati

    (University of Heidelberg)

Abstract

Among the many concerns over globalization is that as nations compete for mobile firms, they will relax labour standards as a method of lowering costs and attracting investment. Using spatial estimation on panel data for 148 developing countries over 18 years, we find that the labour standards in one country are positively correlated with the labour standards elsewhere (i.e. a cut in labour standards in other countries reduces labour standards in the country in question). This interdependence is more evident in labour practices (i.e. enforcement) than in labour laws. Further, competition is most fierce in those countries with already low standards.

Suggested Citation

  • Ronald B. Davies & Krishna Chaitanya Vadlamannati, 2011. "A Race to the Bottom in Labour Standards? An Empirical Investigation," The Institute for International Integration Studies Discussion Paper Series iiisdp385, IIIS.
    • Handle: RePEc:iis:dispap:iiisdp385
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.tcd.ie/triss/assets/PDFs/iiis/iiisdp385.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Hansen, Lars Peter, 1982. "Large Sample Properties of Generalized Method of Moments Estimators," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 50(4), pages 1029-1054, July.
    2. Busse, Matthias, 2002. "Do Labor Standards Affect Comparative Advantage in Developing Countries?," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 30(11), pages 1921-1932, November.
    3. Keith Head & Thierry Mayer, 2004. "Market Potential and the Location of Japanese Firms in the European Union," Sciences Po publications info:hdl:2441/10192, Sciences Po.
    4. Gerda Dewit & Holger Görg & Catia Montagna, 2009. "Should I stay or should I go? Foreign direct investment, employment protection and domestic anchorage," Review of World Economics (Weltwirtschaftliches Archiv), Springer;Institut für Weltwirtschaft (Kiel Institute for the World Economy), vol. 145(1), pages 93-110, April.
    5. repec:dau:papers:123456789/6264 is not listed on IDEAS
    6. Kleibergen, Frank & Paap, Richard, 2006. "Generalized reduced rank tests using the singular value decomposition," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 133(1), pages 97-126, July.
    7. Bruce A. Blonigen & Ronald B. Davies & Glen R. Waddell & Helen T. Naughton, 2019. "FDI in Space: Spatial Autoregressive Relationships in Foreign Direct Investment," World Scientific Book Chapters, in: Foreign Direct Investment, chapter 2, pages 55-88, World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd..
    8. Bruce A. Blonigen & Jeremy Piger, 2019. "Determinants of Foreign Direct Investment," World Scientific Book Chapters, in: Foreign Direct Investment, chapter 1, pages 3-54, World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd..
    9. Karolina Ekholm & Rikard Forslid & James R. Markusen, 2021. "Export-Platform Foreign Direct Investment," World Scientific Book Chapters, in: BROADENING TRADE THEORY Incorporating Market Realities into Traditional Models, chapter 6, pages 111-130, World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd..
    10. Ronald B. Davies & Johannes Voget, 2008. "Tax competition in an expanding European Union," Working Papers 200904, School of Economics, University College Dublin.
    11. Neumayer, Eric & Soysa, Indra de, 2006. "Globalization and the Right to Free Association and Collective Bargaining: An Empirical Analysis," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 34(1), pages 31-49, January.
    12. Kurt J. Beron & James C. Murdoch & Wim P. M. Vijverberg, 2003. "Why Cooperate? Public Goods, Economic Power, and the Montreal Protocol," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 85(2), pages 286-297, May.
    13. Whitney K. Newey & Kenneth D. West, 1994. "Automatic Lag Selection in Covariance Matrix Estimation," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 61(4), pages 631-653.
    14. Beata Smarzynska Javorcik & Mariana Spatareanu, 2005. "Do Foreign Investors Care about Labor Market Regulations?," Review of World Economics (Weltwirtschaftliches Archiv), Springer;Institut für Weltwirtschaft (Kiel Institute for the World Economy), vol. 141(3), pages 375-403, October.
    15. Alexander Klemm & Stefan Parys, 2012. "Empirical evidence on the effects of tax incentives," International Tax and Public Finance, Springer;International Institute of Public Finance, vol. 19(3), pages 393-423, June.
    16. James R. MARKUSEN, 2021. "Multinationals, Multi-Plant Economies, And The Gains From Trade," World Scientific Book Chapters, in: BROADENING TRADE THEORY Incorporating Market Realities into Traditional Models, chapter 1, pages 3-24, World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd..
    17. Michael Overesch & Johannes Rincke, 2009. "Competition from Low‐wage Countries and the Decline of Corporate Tax Rates: Evidence from European Integration," The World Economy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 32(9), pages 1348-1364, September.
    18. Haufler, Andreas & Wooton, Ian, 1999. "Country size and tax competition for foreign direct investment," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 71(1), pages 121-139, January.
    19. Dreher, Axel, 2006. "IMF and economic growth: The effects of programs, loans, and compliance with conditionality," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 34(5), pages 769-788, May.
    20. Drusilla K. Brown, 2001. "Labor Standards: Where Do They Belong on the International Trade Agenda?," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 15(3), pages 89-112, Summer.
    21. Blundell, Richard & Bond, Stephen, 1998. "Initial conditions and moment restrictions in dynamic panel data models," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 87(1), pages 115-143, August.
    22. Beck, Nathaniel & Katz, Jonathan N., 1995. "What To Do (and Not to Do) with Time-Series Cross-Section Data," American Political Science Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 89(3), pages 634-647, September.
    23. Maarten Allers & J. Elhorst, 2005. "Tax Mimicking and Yardstick Competition Among Local Governments in the Netherlands," International Tax and Public Finance, Springer;International Institute of Public Finance, vol. 12(4), pages 493-513, August.
    24. Soares, Rodrigo R., 2004. "Development, crime and punishment: accounting for the international differences in crime rates," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 73(1), pages 155-184, February.
    25. Cho, Seo-Young, 2010. "International human rights treaty to change social patterns: The convention on the elimination of all forms of discrimination against women," University of Göttingen Working Papers in Economics 93, University of Goettingen, Department of Economics.
    26. Busse, Matthias, 2004. "On the determinants of core labour standards: the case of developing countries," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 83(2), pages 211-217, May.
    27. Bruce Blonigen, 2005. "A Review of the Empirical Literature on FDI Determinants," Atlantic Economic Journal, Springer;International Atlantic Economic Society, vol. 33(4), pages 383-403, December.
    28. Devereux, Michael P. & Lockwood, Ben & Redoano, Michela, 2008. "Do countries compete over corporate tax rates?," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 92(5-6), pages 1210-1235, June.
    29. Levinson, Arik, 2003. "Environmental Regulatory Competition: A Status Report and Some New Evidence," National Tax Journal, National Tax Association;National Tax Journal, vol. 56(1), pages 91-106, March.
    30. Murdoch, James C. & Sandler, Todd & Vijverberg, Wim P. M., 2003. "The participation decision versus the level of participation in an environmental treaty: a spatial probit analysis," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 87(2), pages 337-362, February.
    31. Baltagi, Badi H. & Egger, Peter & Pfaffermayr, Michael, 2007. "Estimating models of complex FDI: Are there third-country effects?," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 140(1), pages 260-281, September.
    32. E. Paul Durrenberger, 2005. "Labour," Chapters, in: James G. Carrier (ed.), A Handbook of Economic Anthropology, chapter 8, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    33. Fajnzylber, Pablo & Lederman, Daniel & Loayza, Norman, 2002. "Inequality and Violent Crime," Journal of Law and Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 45(1), pages 1-40, April.
    34. Salmon, Pierre, 1987. "Decentralisation as an Incentive Scheme," Oxford Review of Economic Policy, Oxford University Press and Oxford Review of Economic Policy Limited, vol. 3(2), pages 24-43, Summer.
    35. Baldwin, Richard E. & Krugman, Paul, 2004. "Agglomeration, integration and tax harmonisation," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 48(1), pages 1-23, February.
    36. Fredriksson, Per G. & Millimet, Daniel L., 2002. "Strategic Interaction and the Determination of Environmental Policy across U.S. States," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 51(1), pages 101-122, January.
    37. Fredriksson, Per G. & List, John A. & Millimet, Daniel L., 2004. "Chasing the smokestack: strategic policymaking with multiple instruments," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 34(4), pages 387-410, July.
    38. Davies, Ronald B. & Voy, Annie, 2009. "The effect of FDI on child labor," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 88(1), pages 59-66, January.
    39. Boockmann, Bernhard & Dreher, Axel, 2003. "The contribution of the IMF and the World Bank to economic freedom," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 19(3), pages 633-649, September.
    40. Keith Head & Thierry Mayer, 2004. "Market Potential and the Location of Japanese Investment in the European Union," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 86(4), pages 959-972, November.
    41. Helpman, Elhanan, 1984. "A Simple Theory of International Trade with Multinational Corporations," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 92(3), pages 451-471, June.
    42. Bordignon, Massimo & Cerniglia, Floriana & Revelli, Federico, 2003. "In search of yardstick competition: a spatial analysis of Italian municipality property tax setting," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 54(2), pages 199-217, September.
    43. Hansen, Lars Peter & Heaton, John & Yaron, Amir, 1996. "Finite-Sample Properties of Some Alternative GMM Estimators," Journal of Business & Economic Statistics, American Statistical Association, vol. 14(3), pages 262-280, July.
    44. Görg, Holger, 2002. "Fancy a Stay at the 'Hotel California'? Foreign Direct Investment, Taxation and Firing Costs," IZA Discussion Papers 665, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    45. repec:hal:wpspec:info:hdl:2441/10192 is not listed on IDEAS
    46. Jagdish N. Bhagwati, 2004. "In Defense of Globalization: It Has a Human Face," Rivista di Politica Economica, SIPI Spa, vol. 94(6), pages 9-20, November-.
    47. Levin, Andrew & Lin, Chien-Fu & James Chu, Chia-Shang, 2002. "Unit root tests in panel data: asymptotic and finite-sample properties," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 108(1), pages 1-24, May.
    48. Windmeijer, Frank, 2005. "A finite sample correction for the variance of linear efficient two-step GMM estimators," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 126(1), pages 25-51, May.
    49. Jan K. Brueckner, 2003. "Strategic Interaction Among Governments: An Overview of Empirical Studies," International Regional Science Review, , vol. 26(2), pages 175-188, April.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Cooray, Arusha & Tamazian, Artur & Vadlamannati, Krishna Chaitanya, 2014. "What drives FDI policy liberalization? An empirical investigation," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 49(C), pages 179-189.
    2. Xu (Susan) Tang, 2017. "Competition or Coordination: Strategic Environmental Policymaking Across OECD Countries," 2017 Papers pta721, Job Market Papers.
    3. Johannes Becker & Ronald B. Davies, 2013. "Learning and international policy diffusion: the case of corporate tax policy," Working Papers 1319, Oxford University Centre for Business Taxation.
    4. Krishna Chaitanya Vadlamannati, 2015. "Rewards of (Dis)Integration," ILR Review, Cornell University, ILR School, vol. 68(1), pages 3-27, January.
    5. Azémar, Céline & Desbordes, Rodolphe & Wooton, Ian, 2020. "Is international tax competition only about taxes? A market-based perspective," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 48(4), pages 891-912.
    6. Ronald Davies & Helen Naughton, 2014. "Cooperation in environmental policy: a spatial approach," International Tax and Public Finance, Springer;International Institute of Public Finance, vol. 21(5), pages 923-954, October.
    7. Karen Crabbé, 2013. "Are Your Firm´s Taxes Set in Warsaw? Spatial Tax Competition in Europe," FinanzArchiv: Public Finance Analysis, Mohr Siebeck, Tübingen, vol. 69(3), pages 317-337, September.
    8. Chen, Maggie Xiaoyang & Moore, Michael O., 2010. "Location decision of heterogeneous multinational firms," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 80(2), pages 188-199, March.
    9. Maggie Xiaoyang Chen, 2011. "Interdependence in multinational production networks," Canadian Journal of Economics, Canadian Economics Association, vol. 44(3), pages 930-956, August.
    10. Ronald B. Davies & Johannes Voget, 2008. "Tax competition in an expanding European Union," Working Papers 200904, School of Economics, University College Dublin.
    11. Jaime Martínez-Martín, 2011. "General equilibrium long-run determinants for Spanish FDI: a spatial panel data approach," SERIEs: Journal of the Spanish Economic Association, Springer;Spanish Economic Association, vol. 2(3), pages 305-333, September.
    12. Olney, William W., 2013. "A race to the bottom? Employment protection and foreign direct investment," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 91(2), pages 191-203.
    13. Steven Poelhekke & Frederick Van der Ploeg, 2008. "Growth, Foreign Direct Investment and Urban Concentrations: Unbundling Spatial Lags," CESifo Working Paper Series 2474, CESifo.
    14. Céline Azémar & Rodolphe Desbordes, 2010. "Short‐run Strategies for Attracting Foreign Direct Investment," The World Economy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 33(7), pages 928-957, July.
    15. Ronald B. Davies & Amélie Guillin, 2014. "How Far Away is an Intangible? Services FDI and Distance," The World Economy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 37(12), pages 1731-1750, December.
    16. Alexander Klemm & Stefan Parys, 2012. "Empirical evidence on the effects of tax incentives," International Tax and Public Finance, Springer;International Institute of Public Finance, vol. 19(3), pages 393-423, June.
    17. Mariam Camarero & Sergi Moliner & Cecilio Tamarit, 2021. "Is there a euro effect in the drivers of US FDI? New evidence using Bayesian model averaging techniques," Review of World Economics (Weltwirtschaftliches Archiv), Springer;Institut für Weltwirtschaft (Kiel Institute for the World Economy), vol. 157(4), pages 881-926, November.
    18. Maggie Xiaoyang Chen, 2009. "Third Country Effects in Multinational Production Networks," Working Papers 2009-01, The George Washington University, Institute for International Economic Policy.
    19. Innwon Park & Soonchan Park, 2015. "Modes of Foreign Direct Investment and Patterns of Trade: An Alternative Empirical Approach," The World Economy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 38(8), pages 1225-1245, August.
    20. Ronald B. Davies & Pehr‐Johan Norbäck & Ayça Tekin‐Koru, 2009. "The Effect of Tax Treaties on Multinational Firms: New Evidence from Microdata," The World Economy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 32(1), pages 77-110, January.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    FLabour Standards; Competition for FDI; Spatial Econometrics;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • J83 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Labor Standards - - - Workers' Rights
    • F23 - International Economics - - International Factor Movements and International Business - - - Multinational Firms; International Business
    • O19 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - International Linkages to Development; Role of International Organizations

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:iis:dispap:iiisdp385. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Maeve (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/cetcdie.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.