Working papers

Working Paper No. 34 - Corporate social responsibility: an overview of principles and practice

01 January 2004

This paper argues that the public discourse on Corporate Social Responsibility has evolved into a quite stylized debate which tends to focus on one particular facet of multinational economic behaviour. Namely the treatment of workers in manufacturing factories in the developing world producing goods for multinational enterprises with particular attention the manufacture of textiles, clothing and footwear.

Working Paper No. 33 - The changing structure of international trade linked to global production systems: what are the policy implications?

01 January 2004

This paper argues that the quantitative rise in world trade openness since 1980 may be less significant than the qualitative change in the structure of world trade, specifically the rise in intermediate goods trade resulting from the breaking up of the production process into different parts and locating these parts in different countries. This paper also examines the structural change, its causes and its implications for theory and policy.

Working Paper No. 32 - Globalization and perceptions of social inequality

01 January 2005

This paper argues that although there is still much heated debate on how, and whether, the growing integration of the world economy has caused greater social and economic differences.

Working Paper No. 31 - Globalization and structural adjustment as a development tool

01 January 2004

This paper argues that economic globalization has become a key feature of the life of economic and social actors around the world, but that this is not tantamount to political inertia and requires on the contrary a rethinking of development policies and new forms of action.

Working Paper No. 30 - The outcome and impact of the main international commissions on development issues

01 January 2004

This paper analyses the context, mandate, work process and outcomes and impact of the major international independent commissions on development issues and draws the major lessons learned of such commissions for the World Commission on the Social Dimension of Globalization.

Working Paper No. 29 - Implications of globalization and economic restructuring for skills development in Sub-Sahara Africa

01 January 2004

This paper discusses the role skills development can play in avoiding the problems of globalization and structural adjustment and realizing their benefits and what can be done to position countries to capture the employment and wage benefits of globalization. He argues that higher and more evenly distributed levels of education will help mitigate wage inequities that have been widened by globalization.

Working Paper No. 28 - Upgrading in global value chains

01 January 2004

This paper considers the way in which new forms of global coordination affect the possibilities for upgrading agricultural and manufacturing producers and traders in developing countries. The global value chain approach emphasizes new linkages in the global economy and the increasing level of trade in parts and components.

Working Paper No. 27 - Corporate social responsibility: An issues paper

01 January 2004

The paper argues that the social responsibility of business has accelerated with globalization. The need to address questions of low living standards, exploitation, poverty, unemployment and how to promote social development in general, has to date been almost entirely the preserve of governments. But, increasingly in the future, the promotion of social development issues must also be one of partnership between government and private and non-governmental actors and, in particular, the corporate sector.

Working Paper No. 26 - Reforming global economic and social governance: a critical review of recent programmatic thinking

01 January 2004

The main purpose of this paper is to review the reform proposals of global economic and social governance in their various permeations as a means of highlighting the different options available. This paper considers the different views of global economic and social governance that emerge from the various reform projects and suggests some strategies for overcoming political resistance to some of the more ambitious proposals.

Working Paper No. 25 - The social dimension of global production systems: A review of the issues

01 January 2005

This paper argues that one of the defining features of the current phase of globalization is the emergence of global production systems. In contrast to earlier phases of globalization, economic activity is not only global in scope but also global in organization. The emergence of these global production systems has been one of the key drivers behind the increase in trade and FDI over the last twenty years.

Working Paper No. 24 - The social dimension of globalization: a review of the literature

01 January 2004

In this literature review of globalization, the paper argues that it is useful to split the globalization process into two parts. The first concerns factors such as trade, investment, technology, cross-border production systems, information flows, and communication. The second aspect of the globalization process concerns the increased homogenization of policies and institutions across the world. While the first aspect is irreversible, the second is not inevitable but the result of policy choices.

Working Paper No. 23 - Social dimension of globalisation in Latin America: Lessons from Bolivia and Chile

01 January 2004

This paper reviews the liberalization experience of Bolivia and Chile during the 1990s and argues that the so-called Washington Consensus type of structural reform policies had serious shortcomings. Both countries experienced an increase in their rates of growth, mostly by a rapid expansion of exports (as expected by the proponents of these policies). This had a positive effect on the incidence of poverty, but was not appreciated by the population; mostly because the great majority felt themselves “losers” in the new economic model.

Working Paper No. 22 - Does the new international trade regime leave room for industrialization policies in the middle-income countries?

01 January 2004

This paper argues that the changeover from the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) to the World Trade Organization (WTO) regime in 1994 was accompanied by a contraction of the scope available to member Governments to conduct domestic industrial policy. This limit is particularly poignant for the set of mid-technology countries that are on the verge of industrialization.

Working Paper No. 21 - Resources for social development

01 January 2004

This paper concentrates on various ways of mobilizing resources for social and economic development, which are technically and administratively accessible, are unlikely to impose any unduly high excess burden of costs through misallocation, are regarded as equitably distributed, are not politically out of the question and are so far not fully exploited or not exploited at all.

Working Paper No. 20 - Globalization, social exclusion and work: with special reference to informal employment and gender

01 January 2004

This paper looks at patterns of social exclusion and inclusion in the realm of work from the perspective of the working poor, especially women, in developing countries. It identifies different processes of social exclusion and inclusion, rather than to assess their causes or measure their impact.

Working Paper No. 19 - Gender and globalization: a macroeconomic perspective

01 January 2004

This paper provides an overview of current knowledge of the complex relationship between gender inequalities and the economic liberalization policies that underpin globalization processes. They also discuss a range of economic policy proposals and initiatives, including at the macroeconomic level, which aim to promote gender equity in the context of the world economy.

Working Paper No. 18 - Social exclusion in the context of globalization

01 January 2004

This paper raises the question to what extent globalization is instrumental in overcoming or, alternately, aggravating situations of exclusion? It argues that it is necessary to understand both phenomena in a historical perspective. Exclusion is not of recent origin and cannot only be related to the acceleration in the process of globalization during the last quarter of a century.

Working Paper No. 17 - The gender dimensions of globalization of production

01 January 2004

Working Paper No. 16 - International Finance: Meeting the needs of people in developing countries

01 January 2004

This paper underscores that International Finance is an important vehicle for growth, for creating jobs, for reducing poverty and for financing social services, but that flows of finance, however, are very unevenly distributed.

Working Paper No. 15 - The impact of technology transfer on employment and income distribution in developing countries: A survey of theoretical models and empirical studies

01 January 2003

This paper critically contrasts the positive implications of technology transfer, such as spillovers, technological catching-up, complementarities with domestic production with negative effects such as possible displacement of workers due to labour-saving and skill-biased technologies and crowding-out of domestic firms.