In The News

Cost Differentials and Labour Flexibility Mean Opportunity for Outsourcing

Edward Alden January 28, 2004
Although the US Senate just passed an amendment to prevent the outsourcing of government work to foreign countries, private-sector business in the US won't be following suit. According to this Financial Times article, sending more blue-collar and white-collar work to India and elsewhere is a smart business play for companies in the US, the UK, and other countries with relatively high labor...

Education Is No Protection

Bob Herbert January 26, 2004
Columnist Bob Herbert begins his New York Times op-ed with a critique of a conference held in New York to update executives on the new trend of outsourcing white collar jobs to countries with an educated but cheaper workforce. Such 'upscale outsourcing' is a relatively new phenomenon in much of corporate America. In the current US job market, prospects for white collar jobs already look...

Globalisation: The Forgotten Strategy

Pankaj Ghemawat January 21, 2004
Multinational corporations have employed different global corporate strategies in their efforts to adapt to the growing mobility of capital resources. Originally, the approach was to use economies of scale to compete in foreign countries with large domestic markets. Large firms can use their size to average fixed costs over many more products, bringing overall costs down compared to their smaller...

Headscarf Ban and Multi-Secularisms

Muhamad Ali January 20, 2004
In Jakarta, Muslim women protested France's headscarf ban at state schools in front of the French Embassy. To these Indonesian women, France's prohibition of religious symbols, including large crosses and Jewish skullcaps, violates the rights of French citizens. Headscarves, they maintain, are a religious obligation, not a cultural expression, and outlawing them interferes with a...

Impatient Jobs

Seema Sirohi January 20, 2004
The IT industry has started to chime in on the outsourcing debate. A group of the top eight American IT companies recently commissioned a report in favor of outsourcing, arguing that countries which yield to protectionism end up stifling their own industries and innovation. The report also slams the US educational system for not producing enough qualified graduates in math and engineering. Soon...

U.S. Urged to Monitor Global Labor Policies

David Brown January 16, 2004
More can be done by government to encourage global best practices, say leaders of both multinational corporations and academic institutions. In fact, a study group comprised of businessmen and academics recently sent the US government 18 recommendations on social responsibility, such as requiring US companies to be liable for overseas actions, encouraging socially responsible purchasing by...

At Conference, Fox Backs Bush's Guest-Worker Plan

Elisabeth Bumiller January 13, 2004
At a 34-country meeting in Mexico, achieving agreement on a free-trade zone of the Americas seems unlikely, says this article in the New York Times. Washington's hope to achieve a Tree Trade Agreement of the Americas by 2005 faces multiple hurdles. The presidents of Brazil, Venezuela, and Argentina are wary of an American-led free trade zone, arguing that their countries' prior...