Time Schedule:
Daniel F. Jacoby
BPOLST 584
Bothell Campus
Examines issues in the changing arena of labor and human resource policy.
Class description
This version of BPOLST 584 covers emergine issues in Global Labor Markets.
In the 80s workers worried lest Japan and Germany take over our manufacturing. In the 90s we worried that less developed countries with low labor standards would usurp our remaining industries. Before the economic collapse of 2008-09, the twentieth century promised a new knowledge economy which contained new threats to service jobs, too, can be outsourced to countries like India. However the financial crisis now appears to be changing our entire economic landscape, and the threatens even the dim prospects we once entertained of an upward leveling in labor standards across the globe. How should we think about these questions? In this class we will consider how global labor markets work. In doing so, we shall be concerned with one over-riding question: Can we square our concerns about job loss and wage pressure in the US with concerns about human rights and fair labor treatment abroad?
To this end we will be looking first at standard economic theory to consider how trade is presumed to influence labor markets. We shall then consider how the impact upon domestic markets differs from that on countries abroad. In dealing with international issues we will focus on three questions a) labor standards, children, and forced labor b) migration, and c) skills for a globalized and knowledge based economy.
Student learning goals
Understand the challenges in achieving social justice for workers here and abroad.
Increase your comfort level in applying economic tools and analysis to global labor issues.
Increase your awareness of global labor conditions.
Understand the relationships between trade and currency movements, on the one hand, and worker welfare, on the other. You will also be expected to use quantitative evidence to support or reject positions in this class.
Be able to discern for yourself, what are the most promising ways to actively influence labor conditions at home and abroad.
Graduate Students will be expected to assume leadership roles in class projects.
General method of instruction
The course will blend project, textbook, and discussion methods.
Recommended preparation
Background in policy studies (at least the equivalent to BPOLST 500) highly recommended.
Class assignments and grading
In addition to standard assignments for the class, graduate students will write a 10-15 page term paper.
TBA
