Multinationals and Anti-Sweatshop Activism

Ann Harrison and Jason Scorse

Chapter 13 in Globalization, Firms, and Workers, 2022, pp 291-317 from World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd.

Abstract: During the 1990s, anti-sweatshop activists campaigned to improve conditions for workers in developing countries. This paper analyzes the impact of anti-sweatshop campaigns in Indonesia on wages and employment. Identification is based on comparing the wage growth of workers in foreign-owned and exporting firms in targeted regions or sectors before and after the initiation of anti-sweatshop campaigns. We find the campaigns led to large real wage increases for targeted enterprises. There were some costs in terms of reduced investment, falling profits, and increased probability of closure for smaller plants, but we fail to find significant effects on employment.

Keywords: Globalization; Trade Reform; Foreign Direct Investment; Labour Markets; Employment; Wages; Offshoring; Innovation; Credit Constraints; Industrial Policy; Labour Rights Activism (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: F02 F6 F63 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.worldscientific.com/doi/pdf/10.1142/9789811239472_0013 (application/pdf)
https://www.worldscientific.com/doi/abs/10.1142/9789811239472_0013 (text/html)
Ebook Access is available upon purchase.

Related works:
Journal Article: Multinationals and Anti-sweatshop Activism (2010)
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:wsi:wschap:9789811239472_0013

Ordering information: This item can be ordered from

Access Statistics for this chapter

More chapters in World Scientific Book Chapters from World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Tai Tone Lim ().