On labour standards and free trade

Global Trade Union Program International Trade Union Cooperation Core Labour Standards and International Organizations: What Inroads Has Labour Made?

Over its almost ninety years of existence, the International Labour Organization (ILO) has adopted 188 conventions that defi ne international labour standards in a wide variety of areas, such as limits on working time, occupational heath and safety standards, employment policy, and basic working conditions for specifi c categories of workers. For ILO conventions to have legal status and be enfo...

Trade, Multinationals and Labour

The theory of international trade suggests that free trade will raise national income. It does not, however, suggest that the incomes of all factors of production will rise. Indeed, Stolper and Samuelson (1941) showed that the removal of import barriers could lower the income of the factor of production used relatively intensively in the production of imported products. Therefore, if OECD impor...

International Trade and Labour Markets

This dissertation consists of four essays that contribute to the literature on international trade and labour markets. The first essay studies the interaction between economic integration, product and process innovation, and relative skill demand in a model of international oligopoly. As trade barriers are dismantled foreign competition intensifies. Competing enterprises respond by investing mo...

Trade AND Labor Standards

Can Farm Animal Welfare Standards be Compatible with Free Trade?