Be sure to attend the first of this year’s LSB Discussion Paper Series.
Date: Friday September 24
Time: 2:45
Place: Long 106
Speaker: Steven DeLoach, Associate Professor of Economics, Love School of Business, Elon University
Title: The (other) Truth about Social Regulation and Trade
Steve will present results from his latest research with co-author Tina Das. In this presentation, DeLoach and Das investigate the controversial relationship between international trade and social regulations such as labor and environmental standards. Fearing a “race to the bottom” in terms of such standards, activists have been promoting the establishment of minimum international standards to be enforced by the World Trade Organization. In fact, it is now law in the USA that all bilateral trade negotiations must seek to “promote respect for worker rights and the rights of children…” (Trade Promotion Authority, Section 2102a). To date, however, the WTO has been reluctant to allow the creation of any barriers to trade based on process standards alone, arguing that standards unrelated to product quality unfairly hurt foreign competition. Is this true? In this presentation, Das and DeLoach challenge the conventional wisdom of those who claim that high social standards necessarily hurt competitiveness.
Join us for Steve’s presentation and for refreshments on the Long patio afterward.