Does Globalization Foster Vulnerable Employment? A cross-national analysis in 122 countries between 2000–2023

• In Event: Economic Sociology Section Roundtables
  In Refereed Roundtable (60 minute): Roundtable 9: Industrial Changes and Employment

Abstract

The present study scrutinizes the association between globalization and vulnerable employment, which is defined as own-account workers and contributing family workers under self-employment. For this, this study addresses the following questions: (1) What is the association between globalization and vulnerable employment? and (2) How does this relationship vary by gender and developmental context? Using a cross-national annual time series dataset from 122 countries between 2000 and 2023, this study utilizes fixed-effects regressions. Preliminary findings show that globalization is negatively associated with the percentage of contributing family workers to total employment regardless of gender. However, globalization is positively associated with female own-account workers. These findings suggest that globalization could particularly foster female informal self-employment beyond working within family. Since the globalization index is comprised of economic, social, and political globalization, we further employ the disaggregated index to observe the relationship between each dimension and vulnerable employment. Moreover, we also classify sample countries into OECD member countries and non-OECD countries to examine the difference across developmental context. It is expected that the present study contributes to the understanding of informal employment amidst globalization and advances the discussion on labor flexibility and precarity.

Author

• Junghi Ha, University of Erfurt