The Right to Organize in the Philippine Business Process Outsourcing Industry

Abstract

There has been some concern over the past few years that nations with emerging economies are sacrificing human dignity over economic progress. An emerging market such as the Philippines has to deal with a host of economic, social, and political issues as its economy develops. One of the issues that concern those who are involved in human rights advocacy is labor rights. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the labor rights issues surrounding the Philippine business process outsourcing (BPO) industry, specifically the right to organize. It also aims to investigate how the changing structure of the Philippine economy has affected the labor rights of its people. This paper will use the BPO industry in the Philippines as a case study. This paper will also try to compare the Philippine experience with those of other countries in order to put its findings in context. Finally, the paper shall examine the effects of globalization on workers’ ability to organize and advocate for their rights.     

中国台湾跨国市场进入竞争发展模式探讨

中国台湾加入世界贸易组织(WTO)后,面临国际化的强大竞争已是不可避免的,无论是传统产业,或生物科技产业、纳米产业、数字科技产业等各种企业投资家追求的明星产业,皆无法挡住此全球化的浪潮。因此,台湾的产业如何在跨国市场进入、竞争、生存将成为每一家企业刻不容缓的议题。     

INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY RIGHTS IN A KNOWLEDGE-BASED ECONOMY: A NEW FRAME-OF-ANALYSIS

The debate on software intellectual property rights (IPRs) has not only highlighted fundamental issues regarding the scheme of protection that software enjoys, it has also pointed out major gaps in the representation of computer programs as economic goods. In this respect, various interpretations of software propose a limited outlook by referring only to particular aspects of computer programs.

The paper discusses the economic nature of software and computational processes and how they should be properly represented as commodities by focusing on software IPR legislation in the US. It elaborates the similarities and differences between software applications and machines on the basis of historical evidence from the evolution of information technologies and computer science. Further, we discuss whether computer programs should enjoy IPR protection (like their physical equivalents) and which legal regime would induce the maximal degree of societal benefits, while satisfying private and public interests.

The paper also elaborates the essential issues of the distinction between ideas and expressions and the ways they are treated as intellectual property. It highlights major aspects in the debate over protection of software applications by both patents and copyrights and analyses the economic impact of the joint regime.

By highlighting the dissimilarities in the economic nature and market behaviour of ideas and expressions we point out the difficulties in drawing parallels between software and physical equivalents. Finally, we provide alternative ways to establish coherent juridical basis and legal policy of software IPRs that aim at stimulating innovation and developing the technological landscape in information technologies.     

日本马克思主义经济学与现实问题研究态势

笔者主要以2003年日本经济理论学会第51届大会的论文为依据，先描述其马克思主义经济学研究的若干特点与态势，然后综述关于社会经济学和规范理论，全球化和元理论，资本主义是否能够存在下去，是资本主义控制市场还是市场控制资本主义，全球一体化和国际金融体系的不稳定化，全球经济一体化进程与阻碍，以及银行衰退论和市场原教旨主义金融行政等具体问题的理论观点。     

知识型服务业国际转移趋势与中国承接对策

近年来,以美国为代表的发达国家知识型服务业向具有智力人才优势的新兴市场国家转移的新浪潮正在兴起,标志着经济全球化进入了新的发展阶段.目前我国知识型服务业基本上还处于发展的起步阶段,但同时也存在着巨大的发展潜力,面临着承接国外转移的良好机遇.当前要站在国家产业发展的战略高度来充分认识承接知识型服务业国际转移的重要性和迫切性,并采取积极有效措施来迎接这轮新的全球产业布局调整.     

从开放宏观的视角看环境污染问题:一个综述

在全球化背景下,伴随着国际间的要素流动,环境问题越来越多地被赋予了全球化的内容。本文将环境与增长、环境与贸易、环境与就业、环境与人口迁移等研究文献纳入到一个开放宏观分析框架中,通过文献研究发现,国际分工使"南—北"之间存在了多纬度的"环境不平等":首先,环境与经济增长问题先后经历了三个发展阶段,即罗马俱乐部提出的"增长极限说"、环境库兹涅茨曲线假说、贸易与环境库兹涅茨曲线假说相关性的争论。随着研究的推进,环境与增长问题越来越类似于一枚硬币的两面,难以同时兼得,但是,由于国际分工模式的差异,发展中国家却为发达国家提供了"污染储藏地"。其次,虽然环境规制使企业损失了部分"棕色"就业,但是环境保护同样能够创造"绿色"就业,然而,在国际分工背景下,环境保护是否有利于发展中国家的整体就业还存在着争议。最后,环境恶化已经导致一些国家出现了"环境难民"以及随之而来的人口迁移。到2050年,全世界由气候变化引起的人口迁移很可能达到5千万至7亿。然而,穷国和富国的环境压力和迁移能力却不尽相同,从某种程度上,这也是国际分工产生的间接影响,但是,关于这一问题的研究还十分有限。     

The Polanyi-Stanfield Contribution: Reembedded Globalization

This essay describes and interprets J. Ron Stanfield’s analysis of Karl Polanyi. Stanfield has helped to clarify Polanyi’s “double-movement” thesis by arguing that the double movement of self-regulating market forces and the protective response is essentially about freedom versus security. These insights provide an analysis that takes Polanyi into the twenty-first century by developing a theory of “reembedded globalization.” This is not something that Polanyi experienced before his death in 1964. Corporate globalization and the escalation of free-market rhetoric have led to a new round of disembedding since the 1970s, and this is evident by both the top-down, corporate globalization of privatization, deregulation, and marketization, as well as, by the challenges to it from the “movement of movements” coalescing around the World Social Forum. The most conspicuous evidence of this neo-protective response and its challenge to corporate-driven market forces is that between the security needs of the world’s globalization victims and the freedom of transnational corporations to make profits anywhere and in any way throughout the world. Understanding the clash in this way suggests that for humanity to save itself, it must struggle to reembed globalization and put security ahead of unbridled freedom. Reembedding globalization requires asserting democratic security ahead of the economic freedom of big business.     

Gender Effects of Trade Openness in Sub-Saharan Africa

ABSTRACT

More than thirty years into the modern era of globalization, scholars are now in a position to evaluate the distributive effects of the policy shifts that have led to greater economic integration. One region of the world for which little robust empirical evidence exists on gendered employment effects is Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). To identify whether there is an impact of economic and trade structure on women's relative access to work, this contribution empirically explores these issues for thirty-eight SSA countries, and for two subgroups. Panel data for the period 1991–2010 is examined using fixed effects, random effects and two-stage least-squares estimation techniques. Findings suggest that trade liberalization has gendered employment effects, with the direction depending on the structure of the economy. However, the more robust finding is that a country's infrastructure has played a determining role in gendered labor market outcomes in SSA since the early 1990s.     

The impact of competition,and economic globalization on the multinational diffusion of 3G mobile phones

To discover differences in technology diffusion of 3G mobile phones across countries, we investigate the impact of market factors, measured by competitive fractionalization, and economic globalization across countries using a multi-country diffusion model. We incorporate comprehensive socioeconomic and telecommunications data covering 35 geographically and economically diverse countries and control for covariates from literature. We used the Non-linear Mixed Modeling (NLMIXED) approach in SAS with pooled multi-country data to estimate a generalized Bass model taking into account unobserved heterogeneity in market saturation levels, a major source of inter-country differences. Our substantive findings are: the significance of the impact of competitive fractionalization on the likelihood of adoption and on the market potential; the significance of the impact of economic globalization on market growth. Our findings will aid international managers and regulators in their strategy and policy formulations. Finally, we demonstrate model validity by model fit and predictive accuracy.     

New Protagonists in Global Economic Governance: Brazilian Agribusiness at the WTO

The existing international economic order has been heavily shaped by US power and the US has been a key driver of globalisation and neoliberal economic restructuring, prompting speculation about whether the rise of new developing country powers could rupture the current trajectory of neoliberal globalisation. This paper analyses the case of Brazil at the World Trade Organization (WTO), a core institution in global economic governance. In the last decade, Brazil successfully waged two landmark trade disputes against the US and EU and created a coalition of developing countries – the G20 – which brought an end to the dominance of the US and EU at the WTO and made their trade policies a central target of the Doha Round. Brazil's activism has been widely hailed as a major victory for developing countries. However, I argue that rather than challenging the neoliberal agenda of the WTO, Brazil has emerged as one of the most vocal advocates of free market globalisation and the push to expand and liberalise global markets. I show that Brazil's stance has been driven by the rise of its export-oriented agribusiness sector. This case demonstrates that business actors from the Global South are becoming significant new protagonists in global economic governance; they are taking the tools created by the states and corporations of the Global North – in this case, the WTO and its neoliberal discourse – and turning them against their originators. At the same time, their interests are being wrapped in and advanced through a discourse of development and social justice and a strategic mobilisation of the politics of the North-South divide.     

广义虚拟经济理论对中国发展战略的启示

广义虚拟经济理论提供了观察经济社会发展的新视角,世界银行等国际组织和国外学者也在运用类似角度分析研究当今世界经济.中国广义虚拟经济取得快速发展,但仍有巨大发展空间.发展广义虚拟经济是中国的一项战略任务,也是一个长期艰巨的过程.当前,必须树立广义虚拟经济时代的宏观调控理念,探索完善"中国特色"体制,树立世界对中国的信心,...     

对外贸易中的文化交流

经济全球化为企业进行对外贸易带来了巨大的发展空间和前所未有的机遇。中国作为世界贸易组织的成员国,拥有了更多参与国际市场竞争的机会。而在国际贸易中,文化环境是极其重要而又容易被忽视的因素,当今世界各国文化相互交融与发展,而文化的传播与交流又要通过一定的方式,其中媒体、政府以及对外贸易自身都发挥了积极的作用。中国对外文化交流与文化贸易存在一定的问题:缺乏品牌文化产品、观念滞后,缺乏创意思维、缺乏国家战略与支持等。因此扩大对外贸易中的文化交流,推动中华文化走向世界刻不容缓。     

对我国经济安全面临问题的思考

随着全球经济的一体化和金融资本的全球化,各个国家的经济安全问题都面临着重大的考验,和以往不同的是每个国家都在更加广泛的空间和领域展开国际间的分工与合作,旧有的许多堡垒与屏障被打破,自由贸易得到了进一步的发展。面对新的形势,有必要对我国经济的内外环境加以有效的评估,从而正确地面对所遭遇的问题,规避风险,进一步作出理性决策,确保我国经济安全。     

中国会计国际化的战略选择

经济全球化必然要求会计标准走向统一,全球会计准则正以势不可挡的速度向我们涌来,中国会计国际化的进程相对滞后.中国会计标准与国际会计标准之间还存在着系统的差异,差异对上市公司的财务信息披露形成了重大影响.中国资本市场的持续发展和对外开放、WTO的加入、国际贸易的日益扩大等,迫切需要采用全球化会计标准的支持.     

走出十大认识误区理性对待反倾销

文章从经济全球化的角度,阐述了反倾销是WTO规则允许的一种贸易保护措施,是国际市场竞争的一种必然现象,也会是一个较为长期的过程。提出了克服不正确的认识,按市场经济原则规范我国的进出口贸易、以积极的、务实的态度应对贸易争端等观点。     

经济全球化时代发展中国家的经济主权

进入21世纪以来,世界经济全球化趋势日益明显。经济全球化在极大地推动各国经济发展的同时,国家的经济主权特别是发展中国家的经济主权在意识形态、经济独立权、经济立法权、经济稳定性等方面也受到了很大的冲击。如何利用经济全球化趋势发展本国经济,同时又能够维护国家经济主权,是发展中需要研究的课题。本文就发展中国家在经济全球化过程中,如何采取积极的应对措施以雏护国家和民族的经济利益做一探讨。     

论中国对外贸易发展战略的选择

伴随着以知识经济和技术创新为主导的经济全球化的推进,国际贸易对每个国家经济的引擎作用不可同日而语,国际市场竞争变得愈加激烈,其形式、内容也发生了深刻的变化。长期指导我国外贸战略的比较优势贸易理论已不再适应国际、国内经济形势的变化,制约着经济的快速发展。因此,我国应逐步淡出比较优势战略,而选择以竞争优势为主导的贸易发展战略。     

我国承接国际服务外包问题研究

近20年前后国际服务外包兴起,推动出现以服务业国际转移为特点的经济全球化新浪潮,对后起国家经济发展政策选择提供了新的机遇。本文在考察我国承接国际服务外包认识过程和发展现状基础上,从发展路径选择、硬件和人才基础条件、政策调整滞后等方面分析我国在这一领域相对落后根源,探讨促进我国承接国际服务外包政策措施。     

China’s international trade development and opening-up policy design over the past four decades

ABSTRACT

China’s opening-up in the past four decades has gone through three waves: the extensive margin of opening-up (1978–2001), the intensive margin of opening-up (2001–2017), and all-around opening-up (since 2017). This paper explores these three stages of the country’s economic reform. China’s gains from trade have been inspired by different economic factors. Before the turn of the century, the large trade volume was due to the realization of comparative advantage based on the country’s factor endowment. However, after its accession to the World Trade Organization, China’s gains from trade have been due, in large part, to the realization of economic scale effects associated with the larger market.     

Tackling Keynes’ question: a look back on 15 years of Learning To Consume

Two centuries of continuous economic growth since the industrial revolution have fundamentally transformed consumer lifestyles. Here Keynes raised an important question: will consumption always continue to expand in the same manner as it has in the previous two centuries? If so, how? This paper critically reviews a body of work that has adopted the Learning To Consume (LTC) approach to study the long run growth of consumption (Witt 2001). By borrowing certain established insights from psychology and biology about how consumers learn and what motivates them to consume, it highlights how rising income, new technologies and market competition have combined to trigger important changes in both the underlying set of needs possessed by consumers and how they learn to satisfy these needs. Methodological issues and open questions are discussed.