From disguised protectionism to rewarding regulation: The impact of trade-related labor standards in the Dominican Republic

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Schrank, Andrew
• 署名单位: University of New Mexico
• 刊物名称: REGULATION & GOVERNANCE
• ISSN/ISSBN: 1748-5983
• DOI: 10.1111/rego.12008
• 发表日期: 2013
• 页码: 299-320
• 关键词: inspection; state

摘要

Policymakers in the Dominican Republic have responded to foreign pressure by rewriting their labor laws and revitalizing their labor ministry. What are the likely consequences? Is aggressive labor law enforcement more likely to protect vulnerable workers from abuse and exploitation or to undermine their ability to compete for labor-intensive employment in an unforgiving world economy? And what are the broader implications of the answer? I address these questions by analyzing qualitative as well as quantitative data on workplace regulators empowered by the Dominican Republic in response to trade-related labor standards imposed by the United States and find that they reconcile social protection with economic adjustment by simultaneously discouraging low road employment practices like informality, union-busting, and the exploitation of child labor, and encouraging high road alternatives that link firms, farms, and families, on the one hand, to public educational, training, and financial institutions, on the other. The result is a potentially inclusive alternative to the repressive industrial relations regime that fueled export-led development -and the East Asian miracle in particular -in the late twentieth century.