IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/hal/journl/hal-03676022.html

Are Labour Provisions in Free Trade Agreements Improving Labour Conditions?

Author

Listed:
  • Inmaculada Martínez-Zarzoso

    (Universitat Jaume I = Jaume I University, University of Göttingen)

  • Hendrik Kruse

    (LEO - Laboratoire d'Économie d'Orleans [FRE2014] - UO - Université d'Orléans - UT - Université de Tours - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, University of Göttingen)

Abstract

This paper investigates the impact of labour provisions in Free Trade Agreements (FTAs) on labour market conditions in the ratifying countries. Using panel data for up to 96 countries and a time-span from 1995 to 2008, matching techniques and a difference-in-differences approach are applied to identify the effect of FTAs on labour conditions, distinguishing between those with and without labour provisions. The results show that FTAs partially improve labour conditions in the participating countries, and that there are differences in these outcomes between agreements with specific labour provisions and those without. Empirical analysis reveals that labour provisions might be a suitable instrument to ensure labour standards, but also that a ‘global race to the bottom’ may not be prevented through these provisions per-se. The correct targeting of labour provisions is highly likely to play a crucial role in the context of avoiding a race to the bottom.
(This abstract was borrowed from another version of this item.)

Suggested Citation

  • Inmaculada Martínez-Zarzoso & Hendrik Kruse, 2019. "Are Labour Provisions in Free Trade Agreements Improving Labour Conditions?," Post-Print hal-03676022, HAL.
    • Handle: RePEc:hal:journl:hal-03676022
    DOI: 10.1007/s11079-019-09545-7
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    To our knowledge, this item is not available for download. To find whether it is available, there are three options:
    1. Check below whether another version of this item is available online.
    2. Check on the provider's web page whether it is in fact available.
    3. Perform a
    for a similarly titled item that would be available.

    Other versions of this item:

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Alberto Chong & Carla Srebot, 2023. "Can Regional Trade Agreements Negatively Impact Primary Schooling?," Open Economies Review, Springer, vol. 34(2), pages 317-339, April.
    2. Rémi Bazillier & Arslan Tariq Rana, 2025. "Social Clauses in Free Trade Agreements: An Efficient Tool to Improve Labour Standards?," The World Economy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 48(6), pages 1251-1281, June.
    3. Thais Nunez Rocha & Inmaculada Martínez-Zarzoso & Chahir Zaki, 2024. "What Type of Trade is Promoted by Environmental Provisions in Trade Agreements?," Annals of Economics and Statistics, GENES, issue 156, pages 207-236.
    4. Ruiqi Yang & Han Luo, 2024. "RETRACTED ARTICLE: Navigating the Evolution of Labor Provisions: Comparative Insights from China, the US, and the EU in Free Trade Agreements," Journal of the Knowledge Economy, Springer;Portland International Center for Management of Engineering and Technology (PICMET), vol. 15(3), pages 11128-11160, September.
    5. Jacopo Timini & Nicola Cortinovis & Fernando López Vicente, 2020. "The heterogeneous effects of trade agreements with labor provisions (Updated March 2021)," Working Papers 2017, Banco de España, revised Mar 2021.

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • F16 - International Economics - - Trade - - - Trade and Labor Market Interactions
    • F66 - International Economics - - Economic Impacts of Globalization - - - Labor

    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:hal:journl:hal-03676022. 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.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using 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: CCSD (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/ .

    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.