Despite recent multilateral efforts to single out child labor in debt bondage as one of the worst forms of child labor, several important questions have yet to be addressed: How pervasive is the...
Targeting Child Labor in Debt Bondage: Evidence, Theory, and Policy Implications (2003)
Basu, Arnab K., Chau, Nancy H.
Despite recent multilateral efforts to single out child labor in debt bondage as one of the worst forms of child labor, several important questions have yet to be addressed: How pervasive is the...
The Adoption of International Labor Standards Conventions: Who, When and Why? (2001)
Chau, Nancy H., Kanbur, S. M. Ravi.
Brookings Trade Forum - 2001
Targeting Child Labor in Debt Bondage: Evidence, Theory, and Policy Implications
Despite recent multilateral efforts to single out child labor in debt bondage as one of the worst forms of child labor, several important questions have yet to be addressed: How pervasive is the...
On Footloose Industries, Asymmetric Information and Wage Bargaining
If capital becomes internationally mobile but labor does not, is the bargaining outcome for workers worsened? In this paper we show that the answer to this question depends critically on the...
Optimal Urban Employment Policies: Notes on Calvo and Quibria.
We show that Quibria's insightful observation on the efficacy of urban policy in a model with an urban trade union and an urban informal sector holds, but with a revenue-neutral employment...
A Theory of Employment Guarantees: Contestability, Credibility and Distributional Concerns
Basu, Arnab K, Chau, Nancy H, Kanbur, Ravi
This paper develops a theory of employment guarantees when labor markets are imperfect and when the credibility of government policy announcements could be in doubt. The basic feature of an EGS is...
Human Capital Formation, Asymmetric Information, and the Dynamics of International Migration
We consider the case in which the opening up of an economy to migration results in departure of skilled workers. We point out that while the possibility of migration changes the set of employment...
Arnab K. Basu, Nancy H. Chau, Ulrike Grote
Does labeling products "Child-Labor Free" provide a market-based solution to the pervasive employment of child labor? This paper explores the promise of social labeling in the context of its four...
Turning a Blind Eye: Costly Enforcement, Credible Commitment and Minimum Wage Laws
Basu, Arnab K, Chau, Nancy H, Kanbur, Ravi
In many countries, the authorities turn a blind eye to minimum wage laws that they have themselves passed. But if they are not going to enforce a minimum wage, why have one? Or if a high minimum wage...
Turning a Blind Eye: Costly Enforcement, Credible Commitment and Minimum Wage Laws
Arnab K. Basu, Nancy H. Chau, Ravi Kanbur
In many countries, non-compliance with minimum wage legislation is widespread, and authorities may be seen as having turned a blind eye to a legislation that they have themselves passed. But if...
Trade restrictiveness and efficiency
Nancy H. Chau, Rolf F”re, Shawna Grosskopf
This article proposes a trade restrictiveness quantity index (TRQI) to measure the welfare impact of trade restrictions based on a distance functions approach. The TRQI embodies two Farrell measures...
Economic Performance, Trade Restrictiveness, and Efficiency
J. Christophe Bureau, Nancy H. Chau, Rolf F”re, Shawna Grosskopf
The paper addresses the question of whether trade restrictiveness impacts economic performance, via a trade restrictiveness index that is decomposable into a trade distortion and a domestic...
Eco-Labeling and Stages of Development
Arnab K. Basu, Nancy H. Chau, Ulrike Grote
The paper examines the effectiveness of eco-labeling in providing a market-based solution to the under-consumption of eco-friendly products in developing and developed countries. The authors show...
Asymmetric Country-of-Origin Effects on Intraindustry Trade and the International Quality.
A model of North-South intraindustry trade in quality differentiated products is proposed to examine the role of country-of-origin reputation in determining the competitive edge of emerging...
The Race to the Bottom, from the Bottom
The dominant perspective in discussions of labour and environmental standards and globalization is that of North-South competition and its impact on Northern standards. This paper presents an...
A Theory of Employment Guarantees: Contestability, Credibility and Distributional Concerns
Arnab K. Basu, Nancy H. Chau, Ravi Kanbur
Both raw intuition and past experience suggest that the success of an employment guarantee scheme (EGS) in safeguarding the welfare of the poor depends both on the wage it promises, and the ease with...
Endogenous factor market distortion, risk aversion, and international trade under input uncertainty
In the context of non-diversifiable and sector-specific risks in labour markets, we show that the resulting factor market distortion - attributable to an endogenous intersectoral wage differential -...
Migration under Asymmetric Information and Human Capital Formation.
We study the migration of skilled workers, along with the skill acquisition incentives created by the prospect of migration. We trace out the dynamics of migration as foreign employers accumulate...
Land Reforms in the Presence of Monitoring Costs and International Trade.
This paper elucidates the implications of transaction costs in agrarian labor hiring activities in a two-sector model of international trade and identifies a link between the size distribution of...
Concessional Amnesty and the Politics of Immigration Reforms
This paper establishes a political support model of immigration reforms. The analysis highlights the distinction between border enforcement and employer sanction measures in that the former can be...
This paper develops a positive theory of two-way capital flows -- the simultaneous outward flight of capital assets, and the inflow of foreign direct investment that acquires ownership of local...
The Pattern of Migration with Variable Migration Cost
In this paper, we examine the role of migrant network in determining patterns of outmigration. Conditions under which migration equilibrium may permit multiple steady states are identified. Our...
Exploitation of Child Labor and the Dynamics of Debt Bondage
This paper is concerned with the institution of debt bondage and child labor employment in the context of an agrarian economy with overlapping generations. The model explores the principal-agent...
This paper develops a positive theory of two-way capital flows – the simultaneous outward flight of capital assets, and the inflow of foreign direct investment that acquires ownership of local...
The Race To the Bottom, From the Bottom
The dominant perspective in discussions of labour and environmental standards and globalization is that of North-South competition and its impact on Northern standards. This Paper presents an...
The Adoption of Labour Standards Conventions: Who, When and Why?
The ratification of ILO Labour Standards Conventions is a key explanatory variable in the empirical literature linking labour standards to economic performance. The assumption is that ratification...
Strategic Amnesty and Credible Immigration Reform.
Why do countries that impose employer sanctions to deter the illegal entry of foreign workers nevertheless grant amnesty to illegal immigrants? In this article, I provide a positive theory of amnesty...
DISENTANGLING THE PRODUCTION AND EXPORT CONSEQUENCES OF DIRECT FARM INCOME PAYMENTS
Chau, Nancy H., De Gorter, Harry
This paper formalizes the production and export consequences of direct farm payments. Taxpayer financed direct payments distort exit and production incentives, while consumer financed subsidies also...
ON EXPORT RIVALRY AND THE GREENING OF AGRICULTURE - THE ROLE OF ECO-LABELS
Basu, Arnab K., Chau, Nancy H., Grote, Ulrike
Why do some countries establish their own national eco-labeling programs and some do not? In this paper, we provide both theoretical arguments and empirical evidence suggesting that the answer to...
Shadow Pricing Market Access: A Trade Benefit Function Approach
Appropriate assessment of the social value of market access is at the core of a broad range of inquiries in trade research. A selection include: the appraisal of industry-level production and...
A theory of employment guarantees: Contestability, credibility and distributional concerns
Basu, Arnab K., Chau, Nancy H., Kanbur, Ravi
Both raw intuition and past experience suggest that the success of an employment guarantee scheme (EGS) in safeguarding the welfare of the poor depends both on the wage it promises, and the ease with...
Middlemen, Non-Profits and Poverty
Chau, Nancy H, Goto, Hideaki, Kanbur, Ravi
In many markets in developing countries, especially in remote areas, middlemen are thought to earn excessive profits. Non-profits come in to counter what is seen as middlemen's market power, and rich...
Middlemen, Non-Profits, and Poverty
Chau, Nancy H., Goto, Hideaki, Kanbur, Ravi
In many markets in developing countries, especially in remote areas, middlemen are thought to earn excessive profits. Non-profits come in to counter what is seen as middlemen's market power, and rich...