Considering the persistent violation of labour rights, questions arise as to the effectiveness of policy instruments regarding the governance of global labour standards. We adopt an industrial relations perspective to compare three broad categories of policy instruments: state-centred...

Foreign direct investment (FDI) by OECD-based multinational enterprises (MNEs) in developing and emerging economies has increased dramatically over the past two decades. While generally perceived as beneficial for local development, it has also raised concerns about unfair competition and the...

The cultural adjustment of expatriates to their host country is an important condition for a successful expatriation. This applies to the expatriates themselves as well as to their families. While the practical relevance of this aspect of foreign delegations in undoubted, there is still a lack...

This paper studies the strategic behavior of multinationals towards weak labor standards in developing countries (South). Without a marginal cost pricing policy, abundant labor in the South gives firms the power to set wages through their choice of output. A strategic reduction in output offsets...

This paper studies the behavior of firms towards weak labor rights in developing countries (South). A less than perfectly elastic labor supply in the South gives firms oligopsonistic power tempting them to strategically reduce output to cut wages. In an open economy, competitors operating in...

This study empirically examines diffusion of labor standards from origin to host countries by investigating whether better labor standards of MNCs’ origin countries are correlated with higher wages of workers in host countries in Africa. MNCs originating from countries with more rights of...

In this paper we show, theoretically and empirically, that stronger employment protection legislation (EPL) in a host country has important and differing effects on the various activities of multinational enterprises (MNEs). Using micro data on affiliates to Swedish multinational firms in 20...

The present economic crisis has sparked a new debate in a wider political and academic public about the role of the state in advanced capitalist societies. The paper discusses this issue in a comparative perspective: How have different models of capitalism in Europe coped with major economic and...

In a world where some consumers are not self-interested and the action of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) reveals information, the price of a good produced by a multinational enterprise and the latter's relocation and production decisions depend on labor standards. We study the effect of...

This paper analyzes the impact of countries' tax attractiveness on the allocation of risk within multinational groups. Our dataset contains subsidiaries located in 32 European countries and owned by parents from 90 different countries globally. We show that tax symmetry positively influences the...