Analysing the Social Triple Bottom Line Impacts of International Trade

Abstract

Globalization and growth in emerging economies drive and are driven by the increase in volume of international trade in the past decades. That means the number of workers in a country working to supply the consumption of other countries has increased. Concerns about the conditions of those workers in emerging economies increased after the discovery of child labour and human trafficking in the Thai fishing sector and the collapse of the Rana Plaza building, housing clothing industry workers, in Bangladesh.

This thesis analyses a number of social indicators that have been extended to a Multi-Regional Input Output table (MRIO) to measure what are called Social Footprints of nations. Chapter 1 provides a brief introduction to this work. Chapter 2 presents some principles of input-output analysis. Chapter 3 investigates the average wages paid for producing direct and indirect imports of nations using employment and income satellite accounts. Chapter 4 analyses the number of workers working in global supply chains and living below the international poverty line, $1.25. Chapter 5 looks at quantitative accounting for social-economic indicators and the development of national accounts. Chapter 6 includes a number of Occupational Health and Safety indicators coupled with MRIO analysis to trace, for instance, the global fatal accidents in the agriculture sector associated with trade. Chapter 7 presents disaggregated labour data and evaluates local and global supply chains to develop the first comprehensive and systematic assessment of Indian child labour involved in the production of commodities consumed worldwide. Chapter 8 presents a case study of the social impact of international trade on the Chinese transport sector and its consequences for the lives of Chinese transport workers and the general population. Chapter 9 concludes.

Social footprints can play an important role in illustrating the impact of international trade on social indicators within countries.