Q1. Explain why some economists consider the labor market to be the last unexplored frontier of globalization. Why do policymakers refuse to fully integrate labor markets?
Q2. What is skill-biased technological change? What does it have to do with the growing incidence of inequality in the developed world?
Q3. The visible inequality in income that has greeted most of the industrialized nations of the world may not be exclusively due to globalization. Do you agree? Why or why not?
Q4. Could we say that when it comes to market integration capital has a distinct advantage over labor? Why or why not?
Q5. Why it is that labor in the developed nations of the world is reluctant to embrace globalization? Cite at least three valid reasons.
Q6. It is often said that globalization allows businesses to play regulatory arbitrage in the sense of playing the different regulatory environments across countries to their advantage. Could the same be said about labor standards? Why or why not?
Q7. What are the reasons behind the recent signs of the reshoring of jobs into the U.S.? Are these only temporary changes or likely to last for a long time?
Q8. Explain how technology can play on both sides of the labor market in the sense of creating jobs as well as destroying them. Can globalization be expected to strike a meaningful balance between the two forces? Why or why not?
Q9. Why does the ILO consider the global outlook on unemployment to be so gloomy? Are these connected to the structural changes brought about by technological progress?
Q10. Is there some kind of connection between globalization and wage stagnation that most commentators find to be detrimental to the health of labor in most market economies? Explain.