Rewards of (Dis)Integration: Economic,
Social, and Political Globalization and
Freedom of Association and Collective
Bargaining Rights of Workers in Developing
Countries
Krishna Chaitanya Vadlamannati*
A much-debated issue regarding globalization is whether it translates
into Free Association and Collective Bargaining (FACB) rights for
workers. The author uses Dreher’s (2006) globalization index, which
gauges globalization on economic, social, and political dimensions,
and Mosley’s (2011) FACB rights index, which measures 37 aspects of
both practices and 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, the
author finds mixed evidence of the impact of globalization on FACB
rights, controlling for a host of relevant factors, including endogeneity
concerns using a System-GMM approach. While social globalization
is associated with both strengthening laws and enforcing the
laws to protect FACB rights, this is not the case for political globalization.
In addition, the positive effect of economic globalization on
FACB rights is sensitive to estimation specifications.