Given that at present anecdotal literature dominates the discussions on
the determinants of labor rights in general, it may be no surprise that empirical
studies on the effects of globalization on FACB rights are underdeveloped.
The existing empirical studies suffer from a number of theoretical
and methodological shortcomings. First, studies (for example, Neumayer
and de Soysa 2005, 2006) simply use trade openness or FDI as proxies for
globalization. These variables may be complementary in some cases but can
also be substitutes, even if both are used to gauge the extent to which a
country has contact with global market processes. To date, the empirical
support for using single indicators to proxy for globalization (such as trade
and FDI) remains inconclusive when estimating its impact on basic social
rights (see Hafner-Burton 2005). A further criticism is the disproportionate
focus on the economic aspects of globalization while the social and political