Committed to understanding the consequences of 21st century globalization for workers in the Global South and North.
ABOUT US
We are a team of three political scientists -- Dr. Damian Raess, Dr. Patrick Wagner, and Dr. Wanlin Ren -- at the World Trade Institute, a research institute affiliated with the University of Bern in Switzerland. Our research focuses on the impact of developing country-driven economic globalization on labor standards and practices in both developing and developed countries. Click here to learn more about us.
Project Description
The project examines the labor effects of the recent incorporation of the BRICS countries in the global economy, in particular their rise as a major source of foreign direct investment. The rapid rise of the BRICS has important yet uncertain implications for labor protections in advanced economies and in the BRICS themselves. Specifically, the project investigates under what conditions BRICS outward FDI (and trade) helps protect and promote (or conversely weakens) workers’ rights and decent working conditions in European countries, in Brazil and in China. While increased product market competition might mean downward pressures on standards, BRICS globalization also presents new opportunities for labor in the global economy. In particular, we ask: to the extent that China’s state-led capitalism is a form of ‘patient capital’ concerned with long-term growth, does Chinese foreign investment dovetail with workers’ interests in host countries? And to what extent are invested countries with high labor standards in the North able to project their regulatory standards onto investing countries in the Global South? The project articulates different levels of analysis (macro, meso, and micro), analyzes both the ‘supply’ and the ‘demand’ side of politics of BRICS globalization, and uses a mix of quantitative and qualitative research methods.
The project is funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation with a personal grant to Dr. Damian Raess (SNSF Professorship) for the period 2017-2022.
The project is funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation with a personal grant to Dr. Damian Raess (SNSF Professorship) for the period 2017-2022.
Recent Publications
2022
- Raess, D., Ren, W., and Wagner, P. (2022). Hidden Strings Attached: Chinese (Commercially-oriented) Foreign Aid and International Political Alignment, Foreign Policy Analysis. DOI: 10.1093/fpa/orac010
2021
- Carrère, C., Olarreaga, M., and Raess, D. (2021). Labor clauses in trade agreements: Hidden protectionism? The Review of International Organizations. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11558-021-09423-3
News & Upcoming Events
News
- Patrick and Damian's paper 'South to North Investment Linkages and Decent Work in Brazil' received a revise and resubmit and will be submitted for publication soon.
- Our collaborative paper, 'Hidden Strings Attached: Chinese (Commercially-oriented) Foreign Aid and International Political Alignment' was accepted for publication at Foreign Policy Analysis.
- Patrick completed generation of the CoLaBra collective labor rights dataset.
- Patrick will be presenting at the EPSA Annual Conference on 23-25 June in Prague.
- Patrick and Wanlin both finished their PhDs in 2021! Congratulations to Drs. Wagner and Ren!
Conferences // 2022
- Patrick will be presenting papers at the following conferences in 2022:
- 'Fault Line in the California Effect: the CoLaBra Dataset' at the EPSA Annual Conference 23-25 June in Prague.
- 'The Squeaky Wheel: Does the Internationalization of Emnes Increase the Effectiveness of Propositive Strikes on Collective Bargaining Outcomes?' at the SASE Conference 9-11 July in Amsterdam.
- 'Does EMNE Internationalization Increase the Effect of Strikes on Bargaining?' at APSA Annual Meeting 15-18 September in Montréal.
