Globalization and Employment

The first part of this research project seeks to answer the following questions:

• What are the core characteristics of the process we call globalization?
  
  
• How has trade liberalization affected trade and economic growth at the level of individual countries? Has global economic inequality increased?
  
  
• Has trade liberalization stimulated South-North migration of labour?
  
  
• What have been the effects on employment and wages in advanced industrial countries?
  
  
• What have been the effects on employment and wages in developing countries?
  
  
• Has trade growth been associated with "unfair trade", "social dumping" and "race to the bottom"?

The second part focuses specifically on labour market effects of the growing flows of foreign direct investment (FDI). The questions being addressed are:

• What are the patterns of cross-border capital flows? How have these patterns been changing?
  
  
• Do FDI flows increase the aggregate rate of investment in developing countries?
  
  
• How do the operations of transnational corporations - the main vehicles of FDI - affect employment and wages in manufacturing in developing countries?