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Decent Work: A Development Paradigm
This component of the research programme aimed at identifying and promoting national and international policies that combine fundamental rights at work with employment and income opportunities and economic development. Several research methods have been used to address these relationships, including the construction of indicators, statistical modelling, and reviews of the theoretical and empirical literature.
Indicators
A serious obstacle to the construction of statistical models of employment and income opportunities and economic development, was the fact that quality measures of rights at work and of labour market institutions were not available. Therefore, the first step was to compile a set of measures of the fundamental rights at work.
The indices pertaining to fundamental rights at work were subjected to significant peer review, including review by ILO colleagues. Constructing these measures developed IILS expertise in the area of qualitative statistical indicators, which are gaining importance for both researchers and policy makers.
Statistical models
The first round of statistical models using the new indicators, relating fundamental rights at work to economic growth and development, addressed aspects of globalization, particularly foreign direct investment (FDI) and comparative trade advantage. This research addressed the "conventional wisdom" - the view that FDI favours countries with lower labour standards. The preliminary results of the study were written up in a paper called Fundamental Rights at Work and Foreign Direct Investment. The paper found no solid evidence to support the conventional wisdom, with all the statistically significant data indicating that countries with greater rights at work receive more FDI.
Literature reviews
To complement the econometric work, and to expose causal connexions, the links between fundamental rights at work and economic growth and development were studied through a review of theoretical and empirical literature. This resulted in a paper on The Economic Impacts of Fundamental Rights at Work. The paper also addresses "reverse causality", or the effects of economic growth on fundamental rights at work.
Various elements of the research programme were completed by the end of 2003 resulting in several publications.
Publications / Papers
Sebastián Waisgrais, Wage inequality and the labour market in Argentina: labour institutions, supply and demand in the period 1980-99, Decent Work Research Programme Discussion Paper, No. 146, International Institute for Labour Studies, Geneva, 2003.
Rossana Galli and David Kucera, Informal employment in Latin America: movements over business cycles and the effects of worker rights, Decent Work Research Programme Discussion Paper, No. 145, International Institute for Labour Studies, Geneva, 2003.
Sandrine Cazes, Do labour market institutions matter in transition economies? An analysis of labour market flexibility in the late nineties, Decent Work Research Programme Discussion Paper, No. 140. 2002.
David Kucera, The effects of wealth and gender inequality on economic growth: a survey of recent empirical studies, Decent Work Research Programme Discussion Paper, No. 136, International Institute for Labour Studies, Geneva, 2002.
David Kucera and William Milberg, Trade and the loss of manufacturing jobs in the OECD: new factor content calculations for 1978-1995, Decent Work Research Programme Discussion Paper, No. 135, International Institute for Labour Studies, Geneva, 2002.
Sebastián Waisgrais, Desigualdad salarial y mercado de trabajo en Argentina: instituciones, oferta y demanda laboral en el período 1980-1999., Decent Work Research Programme Discussion Paper, No. 134, International Institute for Labour Studies, Geneva, 2002.
David Kucera, The effects of core workers rights on labour costs and foreign direct investment: evaluating the "conventional wisdom", Decent Work Research Programme Discussion Paper, No. 130, International Institute for Labour Studies, Geneva, 2001.
Rossana Galli, The economic impact of child labour, Decent Work Research Programme Discussion Paper No. 128, International Institute for Labour Studies, Geneva, 2001.
David Kucera, "Measuring fundamental rights at work", in: Bulletin of Japan Statistics Research Institute, No. 27, 2001.
David Kucera, "Decent work and rights at work: new measures of freedom of association and collective bargaining", in: The ILO and the social challenges of the 21st century, Roger Blainpain and Chris Engels (eds.), The Hague, Kluwer, 2001.
Sandrine Cazes, "Job insecurity in transition economies: how much is too much?", with A. Nesporova, International Labour Review (ILR), Vol. 140, No.3, 2001.
Sandrine Cazes, "Employment protection in industrialized countries: the case for new indicators", with G. Bertola & T. Boeri, ILR, Vol. 139, 2000.
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