Rewards of (Dis)Integration : Economic, Social, and Political Globalization and Freedom of Association and Collective Bargaining Rights of Workers in Developing Countries

A much debated issue regarding globalization is whether it translates into Free Association and Collective Bargaining (FACB) rights for workers. This study uses Dreher’s (2006) globalization index, which gauges globalization on economic, social, and political dimensions, and Mosley’s (2011) FACB rights index measuring 37 aspects of both de facto (practices) and de jure (laws) violations of FACB rights to examine the impact of globalization on FACB rights of workers. Using panel data for 142 developing countries during the 1985–2002 period, I find mixed evidence of the impact of globalization on FACB rights, controlling for a host of relevant factors, including endogeneity concerns using system-GMM approach. While social globalization is associated with both strengthening laws and enforcing the laws to protect FACB rights, the results indicate that this is not the case for political globalization. On the other hand, the positive effect of economic globalization on FACB rights is sensitive to estimation specifications