This paper aims to describe the impact of the labor market on the integration of Africa into the global supply chain (GSC).
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to describe the impact of the labor market on the integration of Africa into the global supply chain (GSC).
Design/methodology/approach
The analysis of trends and comparison of data for 55 nations and territories in Africa using existing data from the World Bank and International Labor Organization, and government and nongovernment reports took place using qualitative content analysis methodology.
Findings
Africa’s labor market enhances the continent’s integration into the GSC despite challenges in other areas, with three pillars identifying the labor market’s strategic sourcing decisions.
Research limitations/implications
The analysis is limited to trends analysis, some of which may have changed during the study.
Practical implications
The findings will enable the global business industry and governments to envision the potential and design Africa’s labor market competitiveness across the African continent. The findings also establish the necessity and opportunity for enhanced infrastructure to attract additional foreign direct.
Social implications
The social implication of this paper is beyond the potential of Africa’s labor market. The paper illustrates how the African is setting to become the next sourcing hub for the global supply chain, allowing scholars to close any prevailing global sourcing gap in research.
Originality/value
This paper describes the potential of Africa’s supply of low-cost labor market and its integration in the GSC.
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Fareesa Malik, Richard Heeks, Silvia Masiero and Brian Nicholson
While digital labour platforms are being increasingly studied across the Global South, the existing literature does not conceptualise the theoretical link between such platforms…
Abstract
Purpose
While digital labour platforms are being increasingly studied across the Global South, the existing literature does not conceptualise the theoretical link between such platforms and socio-economic development. This paper theorises such a link drawing on the notion of institutional voids defined, as in Khanna and Palepu (2010), as “the absence of intermediaries to efficiently connect buyers and sellers” in an economy. We frame digital labour platforms as means to fill institutional voids, seeking to create “development” in the form of earning opportunities in contexts of deprivation.
Design/methodology/approach
We draw on an interpretive case study of an online work training project in a deprived region of Pakistan, where members of marginalised communities were trained to become freelancers for global digital labour platforms. We use the notion of market-enabling institutions aimed at filling institutional voids as a lens to study the project's declared goals, examining the extent to which these were met in practice for the workers who participated in the training.
Findings
Our analysis reveals three types of market-enabling institutions–credibility enhancers, aggregators and distributors, and transaction facilitators–through which digital labour platforms seek to fill institutional voids. However, workers' narratives reveal that institutional voids are only partially filled by these platforms, and their perpetuation results in diverse forms of power asymmetries leveraged by clients and owners of the platforms. We also observe the formation of solidarity networks among workers, networks that are intra-familial and societal rather than characterised by formal unionisation.
Originality/value
The paper offers a novel perspective to theorise the link between digital labour and socio-economic development. Applying such a perspective in a Global South context, it also finds the limits of the digital platforms' institutional void-filling potential, highlighting the emergence of power asymmetries and the emerging formation of worker solidarity networks.
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Globalization has speeded the flow of development across borders, encouraging the movement of both labour and capital. Although it has been well‐documented that labour is less…
Abstract
Purpose
Globalization has speeded the flow of development across borders, encouraging the movement of both labour and capital. Although it has been well‐documented that labour is less flexible than capital and that unskilled labour is disadvantaged by these trends, the impact of globalization on older workers has been largely ignored. The critical gerontology perspective can contribute through its focus on globalization's effects on labour market opportunities and social welfare benefits. This paper aims to address these issues.
Design/methodology/approach
This is a theoretical paper on ageing.
Findings
This paper examines four issues faced by older workers in an international context in order to more fully understand the differential impact of globalization by age. First, the paradigm of globalization assumes a youthful labour force willing and able to relocate search of employment opportunities, criteria inapplicable to many older workers. Second, human capital inequalities produce differing opportunities for older workers to respond to economic changes. Third, existing social welfare provisions are relatively durable and likely to affect older people in complex ways. Fourth, varied levels of international development and life course possibilities produce differences between countries and regions.
Originality/value
This paper is original in highlighting how a lifetime of constraints placed upon older workers by their moral and political economies make their integration into the idealized global market difficult and pose larger questions about understanding the life course in a global context.
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Martina Lubyova and Pavol Babos
In this paper we show that the neo-transitional economies are less neoliberal than could be expected given their 25-years long transition towards building market environment…
Abstract
In this paper we show that the neo-transitional economies are less neoliberal than could be expected given their 25-years long transition towards building market environment, supporting entrepreneurship and restoring capitalism in general. According to factor analysis results based on a cross-sectional sample of 134 countries during the period of 2010–2012 we find that the neo-transitional economies are characterised by relatively restrictive trade and capital regulations, average level of labour protection and low activity of state in terms of tax-based redistribution and social cohesion support. We briefly review several theoretical frameworks, such as the World System Theory, Commodity Chain and Global Capital theory, and Varieties of Capitalism framework, and point towards their limitations in explaining these transitional outcomes. We conclude that these frameworks are not capable of providing the explanations mainly because of their limited or no concern for labour and capital, and their interactions with the national institutions. We conclude that the history of industrialisation and path dependence provides a more plausible framework for explaining the neo-transitional outcomes. Furthermore, the consideration of the ‘resource curse’ and authoritarian regimes in many CIS countries can explain their neglect for tax-based redistribution and the high degree of government interventions in trade and capital regulations.
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Andreas Kern and Christian Fahrholz
This paper inquires into the root causes of global imbalances from an international trade perspective. The purpose of the paper is to establish a conceptual framework that links…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper inquires into the root causes of global imbalances from an international trade perspective. The purpose of the paper is to establish a conceptual framework that links financial market governance, international trade and financial market integration, and to derive implications for the global financial crisis.
Design/methodology/approach
In order to analyze global imbalances, the paper draws on a theoretical Heckscher‐Ohlin‐Samuelson international trade model, in which it compares two open economies, solely differing in their financial market governance structures. Building on these findings, the paper extends the analysis to the role of financial market frictions in propagating global imbalances into excessive lending in high‐income economies.
Findings
To that extent, it argues that global imbalances are due to impasses in international production. This paper argues that countries seeking to suppress real appreciation have engaged in financial repression, which has, via financial globalization, translated into excessive expansion of financial service sectors in flexible market economies.
Research limitations/implications
In order to derive a tractable framework, the abstract from inter‐temporal aspects and from an in‐depth analysis of financial modelling issues. Owing to the static nature of the set‐up, the analytic link between global imbalances and the global financial crisis is intuitive.
Practical implications
Given that differences in national financial market governance influence the direction of international capital and trade flows, it argues for more international policy coordination in preventing future crisis.
Originality/value
The unique feature of the contribution is that it links financial market governance and international trade to international financial market integration in a tractable theoretical framework.
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The global non-attainment of the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 5 indicates the issue of rising gender inequality. Educated women shying away from the labor force is worsening…
Abstract
Purpose
The global non-attainment of the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 5 indicates the issue of rising gender inequality. Educated women shying away from the labor force is worsening it. The labor market dynamics might shape the female labor force participation (FLFP). The present study recommends a policy framework by analyzing this dynamism across 125 countries over 1990–2020.
Design/methodology/approach
The Two-step System Generalized Method of Moments is used to address endogeneity bias. Dynamism in policy environment is captured by relaxing the Ceteris Paribus condition in the empirical model.
Findings
Results show that the moderation of labor market factors has increased with the attainment of Secondary and Tertiary Education. Results also highlight that these factors promote FLFP through prospective opportunities but also hinder female participation through employer’s discrimination despite educational attainment.
Originality/value
Studies have examined the role of education on FLFP. However, prior research has not investigated the role of labor market factors in influencing the impact of education on FLFP. The consideration of these factors will help in addressing the global policy lacuna by recommending a policy framework for enhancing FLFP through internalization of the externalities exerted by the labor market factors, and thereby, help the countries attaining the SDG 5 objectives.
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Jenny K. Rodriguez and Lesley Mearns
The purpose of this paper is to introduce the special issue by problematising labour agency, precariousness, and labour fragmentation as defining themes of the interplay between…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to introduce the special issue by problematising labour agency, precariousness, and labour fragmentation as defining themes of the interplay between employment relations, migration and mobility.
Design/methodology/approach
Drawing from discussions about the impact of globalisation on changes in features of work and employment, and bringing together theory and research on employment relations and labour migration, the paper discusses the relational spatial and temporal nature of agency, the diverse features of worker experiences of precariousness, and the resulting fragmentation in labour solidarity.
Findings
Labour agency, precariousness and labour fragmentation intersect to create the axis of dynamics of hardship and abuse that dominate work experiences of migrant workers in the global labour market. Globalisation has a pervasive impact in articulating and perpetuating systemic processes of closure, entrapment and containment, which are triggered by migration and legitimised by dynamics of employment relations.
Originality/value
The paper contributes to current discussions about the interplay between migration, mobility and employment relations and sets out future directions of research to enhance our understanding of the role of employment relations to perpetuate, legitimise and normalise dynamics of globalisation that promote the migrant division of labour and create contradictory labour demands and displacements in the global labour market.
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Yehuda Baruch, Susan Sayce and Andros Gregoriou
– The purpose of this paper is to explore potential benefits and possible pitfalls of the removal of the default retirement age.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to explore potential benefits and possible pitfalls of the removal of the default retirement age.
Design/methodology/approach
A human capital and labour market perspective provide theoretical lenses for exploring the potential implications for individuals, organizations and societies. The paper employs financial costing analysis to demonstrate.
Findings
The paper uses the UK case to illustrate anticipated managerial and societal outcomes. The main finding from the discussion and the financial analysis is that indeed the current system is unsustainable.
Originality/value
The paper offers areas where lessons about age management can be learnt from other experiences of flexible retirement strategies such as enhancing older workers ' human capital. The idea is of global nature and relevance and forms a “wake-up call” for decision makers at national level.