Thinking outside the Box: Globalization, Labor Rights, and the Making of Preferential Trade Agreements

States can seemingly defy the dictates of globalization. In practice, although being pressured by their competitors, states rarely engage in the race to the bottom by downgrading labor rights laws that are politically costly to pursue. I argue that states’ resistance is made possible by adopting more viable policy alternatives, i.e., concluding preferential trade agreements (PTAs). PTAs can generate considerable economic gains in a less...