Does Latin American and Caribbean Unemployment Depend on Asian Labor Standards?

Many Latin American nations have recently implemented liberal trade regimes, often as part of a larger set of market-oriented reforms, and have abandoned their industrialization policies based on import substitution. In the 1980s, Chile, Mexico, and Bolivia were among the continent`s first nations to slash tariff rates and virtually eliminate quantitative restrictions on imports. They were followed by many others, including Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Jamaica, Peru, Uruguay, Venezuela, and Trinidad and Tobago. All these countries are now much more exposed to international competition than ever before. But is this a good idea? Are labor rights really more restricted in export-oriented Asian nations than they are in Latin America? And if so, are Latin American workers prejudiced by Asia`s lower standards?

Vietnam - on the road to labor-intensive growth ?

Since Vietnam's adoption of the doi moi or renovation policy in 1986, the country has been undergoing the transition from central planning to a socialist market-oriented economy. This has translated into strong economic growth, led by the industrial sector, which expanded more than 13 percent a year from 1993 to 1997. Vietnamese policymakers are concerned, however, that employment growth has lagged. To address this concern, the author compares new employment data from the Vietnam Living Standards Survey (VLSS 2), completed in 1997-98, with data from the first household survey undertaken in 1992-93. He shows that in 1993-97, industrial employment grew an average of about 4 percent a year, which is low compared with industrial GDP growth. This slower growth was attributable to the capital-intensive, import-substituting nature of the state sector and foreign investment, which dominate industry. The more labor-intensive, export-oriented domestic private sector is still small, although growing quickly. In the future, growth promises to become more labor-intensive. Before the Asian crisis there were signs of anemerging export-oriented sector. Using previous statistical analysis (Wood and Mayer 1998) as well as factor content calculations, the author estimates that given Vietnam's endowment of natural and human resources, Vietnam could triple its manufacturing exports and create about 1.6 million manufacturing jobs in export sectors in the near future. After examining Vietnam's labor regulations, the author concludes that there is no need for basic reform of the labor market. At current levels, minimum wages and nonwage regulations (even if better enforced) are unlikely to inhibit development of the private sector or hurt export competitiveness. But a restrictive interpretation of the Labor Code's provisions on terminating employment could hurt foreign investment, reduce the speed of reform in the state sector, and slow the reallocation of resources to the domestic private sector.Labor Policies,Environmental Economics&Policies,Economic Theory&Research,Banks&Banking Reform,Public Health Promotion,Health Monitoring&Evaluation,Economic Growth,Economic Theory&Research,Banks&Banking Reform,Environmental Economics&Policies

ILO Minimum Estimate of Forced Labour in the World

Prepared for the ILO by Patrick Belser, Michaelle de Cock, and Farhad Mehran, this is a technical document that provides a detailed account of the methodology used in the ILO’s first minimum estimate of forced labour in the world, prepared in 2005. It also includes a thorough evaluation of the results, with calculation of margins of error and comparison with external sources

Forced Labor and Human Trafficking: Estimating the Profits

The paper is part of the ILO Special Action Programme to Combat Forced Labour (SAP-FL) research on the quantitative and economic dimensions of forced labor and human trafficking. It complements research published by SAP-FL, in particular on the economic perspective on human trafficking in Europe (Working Paper No.31) and on the definition, indicators and measurement of forced labour (Working Paper No. 18)

Viral to metazoan marine plankton nucleotide sequences from the Tara Oceans expedition

A unique collection of oceanic samples was gathered by the Tara Oceans expeditions (2009–2013), targeting plankton organisms ranging from viruses to metazoans, and providing rich environmental context measurements. Thanks to recent advances in the field of genomics, extensive sequencing has been performed for a deep genomic analysis of this huge collection of samples. A strategy based on different approaches, such as metabarcoding, metagenomics, single-cell genomics and metatranscriptomics, has been chosen for analysis of size-fractionated plankton communities. Here, we provide detailed procedures applied for genomic data generation, from nucleic acids extraction to sequence production, and we describe registries of genomics datasets available at the European Nucleotide Archive (ENA, www.ebi.ac.uk/ena). The association of these metadata to the experimental procedures applied for their generation will help the scientific community to access these data and facilitate their analysis. This paper complements other efforts to provide a full description of experiments and open science resources generated from the Tara Oceans project, further extending their value for the study of the world’s planktonic ecosystems

Viral to metazoan marine plankton nucleotide sequences from the Tara Oceans expedition

A unique collection of oceanic samples was gathered by the Tara Oceans expeditions (2009-2013), targeting plankton organisms ranging from viruses to metazoans, and providing rich environmental context measurements. Thanks to recent advances in the field of genomics, extensive sequencing has been performed for a deep genomic analysis of this huge collection of samples. A strategy based on different approaches, such as metabarcoding, metagenomics, single-cell genomics and metatranscriptomics, has been chosen for analysis of size-fractionated plankton communities. Here, we provide detailed procedures applied for genomic data generation, from nucleic acids extraction to sequence production, and we describe registries of genomics datasets available at the European Nucleotide Archive (ENA, www.ebi.ac.uk/ena). The association of these metadata to the experimental procedures applied for their generation will help the scientific community to access these data and facilitate their analysis. This paper complements other efforts to provide a full description of experiments and open science resources generated from the Tara Oceans project, further extending their value for the study of the world's planktonic ecosystems

The European Reference Genome Atlas: piloting a decentralised approach to equitable biodiversity genomics.

ABSTRACT: A global genome database of all of Earth’s species diversity could be a treasure trove of scientific discoveries. However, regardless of the major advances in genome sequencing technologies, only a tiny fraction of species have genomic information available. To contribute to a more complete planetary genomic database, scientists and institutions across the world have united under the Earth BioGenome Project (EBP), which plans to sequence and assemble high-quality reference genomes for all ∼1.5 million recognized eukaryotic species through a stepwise phased approach. As the initiative transitions into Phase II, where 150,000 species are to be sequenced in just four years, worldwide participation in the project will be fundamental to success. As the European node of the EBP, the European Reference Genome Atlas (ERGA) seeks to implement a new decentralised, accessible, equitable and inclusive model for producing high-quality reference genomes, which will inform EBP as it scales. To embark on this mission, ERGA launched a Pilot Project to establish a network across Europe to develop and test the first infrastructure of its kind for the coordinated and distributed reference genome production on 98 European eukaryotic species from sample providers across 33 European countries. Here we outline the process and challenges faced during the development of a pilot infrastructure for the production of reference genome resources, and explore the effectiveness of this approach in terms of high-quality reference genome production, considering also equity and inclusion. The outcomes and lessons learned during this pilot provide a solid foundation for ERGA while offering key learnings to other transnational and national genomic resource projects.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Does Latin American and Caribbean Unemployment Depend on Asian Labor Standards?

Many Latin American nations have recently implemented liberal trade regimes, often as part of a larger set of market-oriented reforms, and have abandoned their industrialization policies based on import substitution. In the 1980s, Chile, Mexico, and Bolivia were among the continent's first nations to slash tariff rates and virtually eliminate quantitative restrictions on imports. They were followed by many others, including Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Jamaica, Peru, Uruguay, Venezuela, and Trinidad and Tobago. All these countries are now much more exposed to international competition than ever before. But is this a good idea? Are labor rights really more restricted in export-oriented Asian nations than they are in Latin America? And if so, are Latin American workers prejudiced by Asia's lower standards

Forced Labor and Human Trafficking: Estimating the Profits

DECLARATION/WP/42/2005The paper is part of the ILO Special Action Programme to Combat Forced Labour (SAP-FL) research on the quantitative and economic dimensions of forced labor and human trafficking. It complements research published by SAP-FL, in particular on the economic perspective on human trafficking in Europe (Working Paper No.31) and on the definition, indicators and measurement of forced labour (Working Paper No. 18).Forced_labor_no__17_Forced_labour_and_human.pdf: 52797 downloads, before Oct. 1, 2020