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Globalisation, women's economic rights and forced labour

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  • Neumayer, Eric
  • de Soysa, Indra

Abstract

Globalization critics are concerned that increased trade openness and foreign direct investment exacerbate existing economic disadvantages of women and foster conditions for forced labor. Defenders of globalization argue instead that as countries become more open and competition intensifies, discrimination against any group, including women, becomes more difficult to sustain and is therefore likely to recede. The same is argued with respect to forced labor. This article puts these competing claims to an empirical test. We find that countries that are more open to trade provide better economic rights to women and have a lower incidence of forced labor. This effect holds in a global sample as well as in a developing country sub-sample and holds also when potential feedback effects are controlled via instrumental variable regression. The extent of an economy’s ‘penetration’ by foreign direct investment has no statistically significant impact. Globalization might weaken the general bargaining position of labor such that outcome-related labor standards might suffer. However, being more open toward trade is likely to promote rather than hinder the realization of two labor rights considered as core or fundamental by the International Labour Organization, namely the elimination of economic discrimination and of forced labor.

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Bibliographic Info

Paper provided by London School of Economics and Political Science in its series Open Access publications from London School of Economics and Political Science with number http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/3053/.

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Date of creation: Oct 2007
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Publication status: Published in The world economy (2007-10) v.30, p.1510-1535
Handle: RePEc:ner:lselon:http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/3053/

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  1. Abu-Ghaida, Dina & Klasen, Stephan, 2004. "The Costs of Missing the Millennium Development Goal on Gender Equity," IZA Discussion Papers 1031, Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA).
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Cited by:
  1. Niklas Potrafke & Heinrich Ursprung, 2011. "Globalization and Gender Equality in Developing Countries," Working Paper Series of the Department of Economics, University of Konstanz 2011-33, Department of Economics, University of Konstanz.
  2. Ulla Lehmijoki & Tapio Palokangas, 2009. "Population growth overshooting and trade in developing countries," Journal of Population Economics, Springer, vol. 22(1), pages 43-56, January.
  3. Neumayer, Eric & de Soysa, Indra, 2011. "Globalization and the Empowerment of Women: An Analysis of Spatial Dependence via Trade and Foreign Direct Investment," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 39(7), pages 1065-1075, July.

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