Globalization and Cross-Border Labor Organizing

Globalization and the Labor Market

I thank Allan Mendelowitz and Matt Slaughter for helpful comments. All opinions and errors are mine. 1 In this paper I survey the effects of international trade and other influences on the US labor market. First, I examine the move toward globalization and its various manifestations. Second, I trace out the main labor market changes that have occurred over the last two or three decades – declin...

Cross-border Acquisitions: Do Labor Regulations Affect Acquirer Returns?

Do labor regulations influence the reaction of stock markets and firm profitability to cross-border acquisitions? We discover that acquiring firms enjoy smaller abnormal stock returns and profits when targets are in countries with stronger labor protection regulations, i.e., in countries where laws, regulations, and policies increase the costs to firms of adjusting their workforces. These effec...

Globalization, Labor Income, and Poverty in Mexico

In this paper, I examine changes in the distribution of labor income across regions of Mexico during the country’s decade of globalization in the 1990’s. I focus the analysis on men born in states with either high-exposure or low-exposure to globalization, as measured by the share of foreign direct investment, imports, or export assembly in state GDP. Controlling for regional differences in the...

Globalization, Inequality and Labor Market Policies

This paper addresses four questions. First, is globalization associated with more inequality in consumption or earnings? Second, is the labor market an important transmission mechanism? Third, can labor market policies reduce inequality? And fourth, would these policies have important side effects on efficiency? The answers are based on an analytical survey of the literature, including several ...

Reflections on Health Tourism and Cross-Border Health Care