Activities Of Multinational Companies Research Articles

Globalization and labor conditions: working conditions and worker rights in a global economy

This book explains how three major mechanisms of globalization - international trade, international migration, and the activities of multinational companies - have altered working conditions and labor rights around the world during the 20th century. Drawing on analyses of a database on international labor conditions assembled for this project and a growing research literature on globalization and labor conditions, the book finds that trade, migration, and multinational companies are associated with improvements in world labor conditions.

The importance of, and pitfalls in, measuring globalization

In recent years, globalization has been the subject of an increasingly intense public dialog, as international trade and investment have grown and as patterns of trade and investment have evolved and assumed new forms. Economic statisticians are charged with compiling information on globalization that is relevant, timely, and accurate. This paper discusses issues that may be encountered in carrying out this mandate with respect to two major ways in which globalization manifests itself in real terms - cross-border trade in goods and services and foreign direct investment and the resulting international activities of multinational companies. The paper assesses the importance of measurement and examines some of the pitfalls that may be encountered in constructing indicators of globalization and in using those indicators to quantify and describe the phenomenon and gauge its economic impact. The discussion is informed by the experiences of the United States in developing this information.

Narrowing the gap

Since 1981 AIDS has illuminated, like a roving searchlight, a series of ethical questions, which extend far beyond the apparently narrow limits of one disease. It has revealed, one by...

Bioethics in developing countries: ethics of scarcity and sacrifice.

Contemporary issues such as euthanasia, surrogate motherhood, organ transplantation and gene therapy, which occupy the minds of ethicists in the industrialized countries are, for the moment, irrelevant in most developing countries. There, the ethics of scarcity, sacrifice, cross-cultural research, as well as the activities of multinational companies, are germane. In this article, only the ethics of scarcity and sacrifice will be discussed. Structural adjustment programmes, designed to solve the economic problems of the developing countries, muddied the waters. The dilemma confronting practitioners in developing countries is how to adhere to the basic principles of medical ethics in an atmosphere of hunger, poverty, war and ever-shrinking and often non-existent resources. Nowhere else in the world is the true meaning of scarcity portrayed as vividly as in the developing countries. Consequently, the doctor's clinical freedom may have to be sacrificed by the introduction of an essential drugs list and practice guidelines. The principle of greater good, while appealing, must be carefully interpreted and applied in the developing countries. Thus, while health promotion and disease prevention must be the primary focus, health planners should avoid pushing prevention at the expense of those currently sick. Health care reform in developing countries must not merely re-echo what is being done in the industrialized countries, but must respond to societal needs and be relevant to the community in question.

Multinational Britain: Employment and Work In an Internationalised Economy

Paul Marginson, who is a Senior Lecturer in Industrial Relations at the University of Warwick, draws on the second Company Level Industrial Relations Survey to provide new data on, and an assessment of, the role of Britain in a global economy increasingly shaped by the corporate decisions of multinational companies. He emphasises the multinational character of Britain's economy as compared with those of other large industrialised countries; considers the contrasting implications of the activities of multinational companies for employment practice; and explores the factors underlying the considerable variation evident in the actual practice of multinational companies.

Multinational companies and the growth of the U.S. trade deficit

This article examines the role of multinational companies (MNCs) in the growth of the U.S. trade deficit. Estimates of MNC-related trade are developed for 1977, 1982, and 1987. The data show that MNCs are associated with a significant share of U.S. trade and that the trading activities of multinational companies can be linked to significant trends in the U.S. trade balance.

Multinational Companies and International Trade: The Impact of Intrafirm Shipment on U.S. Foreign Trade 1977-1982

This paper presents new data on the trading activities of multinational companies. Estimates of intrafirm shipments are developed for 1977 and 1982 from trade data contained in the U.S. government benchmark surveys of direct foreign investment. The paper shows that intrafirm shipments comprised a significant share of U.S. international trade and contributed to the deficit pressure on the U.S. trade balance.