Labor Rights and Foreign Direct Investment: Is There a Race to the Bottom?

Robert G. Blanton and Shannon L. Blanton

International Interactions, 2012, vol. 38, issue 3, 267-294

Abstract: As global awareness of human rights continues to increase, the practices and investment decisions of multinational corporations have come under increased scrutiny. This is particularly the case with labor rights. Popular arguments concerning a “race to the bottom” abound, though a growing amount of scholarship portrays a more positive relationship between foreign capital and such rights. Yet empirical studies have yielded mixed results. To clarify the linkages between labor rights and foreign direct investment (FDI), we add to the extant literature in two ways. First, we take into account the reciprocal relationship between FDI and labor rights. Second, as FDI is a heterogeneous phenomenon, we assess these linkages across three different industrial sectors. Our findings show that there is a significant relationship between labor rights and FDI, though its exact nature varies across sectors.

Date: 2012
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (14)

Downloads: (external link)
http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/03050629.2012.676496 (text/html)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:taf:ginixx:v:38:y:2012:i:3:p:267-294

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.tandfonline.com/pricing/journal/GINI20

DOI: 10.1080/03050629.2012.676496

Access Statistics for this article

International Interactions is currently edited by Michael Colaresi and Gerald Schneider

More articles in International Interactions from Taylor & Francis Journals
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Chris Longhurst ().