In 2001, a group of Harvard University students in the Progressive Student Labor Movement occupied Massachusetts Hall, the administrative building where the President, Provost and Vice Presidents have their offices. For twenty-one days, the longest sit in of a University building in history, the students occupied the first floor and refused to leave until the University implemented a “living wa...

“Slavery existed before money or law” (Hochschild 2005). Indeed the “peculiar institution” is one of humanity’s oldest. It has, however, evolved and manifested itself quite distinctly in different periods of history. In contrast to historical views of slavery that are associated with Chattel Slavery, numerous forms fall under the umbrella term of contemporary slavery. The United Nations (U.N.) ...

When do labor laws protect workers from workplace risks, and when do they serve to institute or insulate the privilege of particular political and economic actors? This paper argues that Latin American labor laws are highly politicized, and have been since their early origins. In the early decades of the twentieth century, the first labor codes were formulated to favor skilled, unionized labor ...

We explored the effect of labor protection on firms’ operational efficiency, based empirical data from China. Taking China’s Labor Contract Law implementation in 2008 as a quasi-natural experiment, we constructed difference-in-differences (DID) model to investigate relationship between and efficiency. Based sample Chinese listed companies non-financial sector 2004–2021, analysis results show th...

The International Labor Organization (ILO) strives to achieve good and admirable goals. The mission of the ILO is to advance opportunities for “decent and productive work in conditions of freedom, equity, security and human dignity.” 1 But the ILO and similar organizations work in a very challenging environment. They are not governments and, hence, do not have direct law-making authority. They ...