The Impact of Peacekeeping Missions on Women’s Empowerment

What effect do peacekeeping operations (PKOs) have on women’s empowerment? The gendered consequences of peacekeeping have long been an issue of contention. Stung by multiple cases of peacekeepers directly engaging in sexual exploitation and abuse, the United Nations took measures to mainstream gender equality within PKO goals, ranging from protection from sexual violence to the encouragement of female participation in peacebuilding processes. Yet while a growing body of research has begun to provide insights into the gendered aspects of the PKOs themselves, much less is known about the broader gendered impact of PKOs on the host countries. To better understand these effects, we examine the extent to which PKOs serve to advance female empowerment in terms of women’s participation in official political channels as well as women’s civil liberties and active involvement in civil society participation. Examining these linkages from 1970–2013, we find that multidimensional PKOs are conducive to growing levels of women’s empowerment, though such growth decreases considerably after the conclusion of the PKO

Resource Wealth: A “Curse” for Labor Rights?

Though a great deal of research has examined the economic and political consequences of natural resource wealth, its implications for labor remain empirically under-examined. In this article, we contend that resource abundance undermines labor rights due to the inelastic demand for resource-intensive products, which serves to insulate these states from internal and external pressures to protect these rights. In addition to this direct linkage, we posit that resource wealth indirectly undercuts labor rights through its adverse impact on civil society and bureaucratic capacity. Examining these linkages across 148 countries for the years 1994–2010, we find that resource wealth has a negative and significant impact on labor rights practices, though not on labor rights laws. Results from a causal mediation analysis show that resource wealth also undermines labor rights through its negative impact on labor organizations and bureaucratic capacit

The Impact of IMF and World Bank Programs on Labor Rights

What effect do International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank programs have on collective labor rights? Labor rights advocacy networks and organized labor groups have long been critical of neoliberal policy prescriptions attached to loans by international financial institutions (IFIs), claiming that they harm the interests of workers. IFIs dispute these claims, noting that they work with relevant labor organizations and that many of their arrangements call for compliance with core labor standards. Yet very little research has been devoted to whether IFI programs affect labor laws and the actual labor practices of recipient countries. We argue that IFI programs undermine collective labor rights. Specifically, recommended policy reforms, as well as the broader signals connoted by participation in the programs, undermine labor organizations and the adoption of protective laws. To substantiate these claims, we use time-series cross-national data for a sample of 123 low- and middle-income countries for the years 1985 to 2002. Our findings suggest that programs from both IFIs are negatively and significantly related to labor rights, including laws designed to guarantee basic collective labor rights as well as the protection of these rights in practice

Neoliberal Policies and Human Trafficking for Labor: Free Markets, Unfree Workers?

While the economic benefits of neoliberalism are widely noted, its impact upon human security is contentious, particularly in the area of equity and economic rights. In this article, we examine the impact of free-market policies upon a particularly egregious abuse of human and labor rights, trafficking in forced and child labor. Drawing from relevant scholarship on market liberalization and human trafficking, we posit that policies that promote market deregulation, reduced state size, and global economic openness are positively related to trafficking of child and forced labor. To test these claims, we combine data on three main facets of pro-market policies—a “business-friendly” regulatory environment, reduced state size, and policies favoring global economic openness—with data on human trafficking for forced and child labor. We find that economic liberalization in general significantly increases the likelihood of human trafficking for labor purposes. Our results further suggest that among the three facets of neoliberal policies, a market-friendly regulatory environment has the most significant impact upon labor trafficking. Overall, our results point to a conflict between the universally professed aversion to human trafficking and the dominant neoliberal approach to economic policy

Confronting human trafficking: The role of state capacity

While human trafficking occupies a prominent place on the global policy agenda, many aspects of this phenomenon remain empirically underdeveloped. We examine the role of state capacity in these illicit supply chains, positing that trafficking flows may persist because even well-intentioned states might lack the requisite capacity to take effective action. Along those lines, we assess the impact of two facets of state capacity, bureaucratic efficacy and fiscal capacity, upon the probability of a country being a source or destination for the two types of human trafficking, forced labor and prostitution. We find that state capacity, particularly fiscal capacity, is significantly related to reduced labor and sex trafficking at both the source and destination levels

Financial crises and labor: Does tight money loosen labor rights?

Despite copious research on financial crises, many of their effects remain poorly understood. In this study, we examine how financial crises affect collective labor rights. We posit that the economic effects of these crises likely undermine the protection of collective labor rights. To test these propositions, we examine the impact of financial crises on collective labor rights in 46 developing countries from 1985 through 2002. We find that crises are detrimental to labor rights practices while having no significant effect on labor rights laws, and that their effect persists for up to five years after the crisis subsides. Our analysis thus suggests that financial crises pose a challenge to supporters of labor rights, as they are pivotal events that call into question the balance that exists between the state, capital, and labor, and that labor loses power in both the short and medium terms

How Do Political Changes Influence US Bilateral Aid Allocations? Evidence from Panel Data

This paper examines the role of US domestic politics in aid allocation using panel data on 119 countries from 1960 to 1997. Employing proxies for four allocation criteria (development concerns, strategic importance, commercial importance, and democratization), we find evidence that each has influence, although the evidence is stronger for some criteria (development, commercial) than for others (strategic, democratization). Their influence depends on the composition of the US government. When the president and Congress are liberal, development concerns receive more weight than when the president and/or Congress are more conservative. When the Congress is more conservative, commercial concerns have more weight than when the Congress is liberal. These findings are important in light of current attempts to overhaul the allocation of aid. Copyright � 2006 The Authors; Journal compilation � 2006 Blackwell Publishing Ltd.

World Bank Independence: A Model and Statistical Analysis of US Influence

This paper develops a model to test whether World Bank lending caters to US interests. We use country-level panel data to examine the geographic distribution of World Bank lending to 110 countries from 1968 to 2002. After controlling for country characteristics expected to influence the distribution of lending in a manner consistent with the World Bank's charter and stated allocation mechanisms, we introduce variables reflecting US interests. The empirical results are consistent with a significant US influence, but one which varies across presidential administrations. These findings have important implications because donor influence may reduce the credibility, and hence the development effectiveness, of multilateral aid organizations. Copyright � 2006 The Authors; Journal compilation � 2006 Blackwell Publishing Ltd.