World Development 27(9): 1651-71 1999.
This paper examines the case of adjustment in a labor-int... more World Development 27(9): 1651-71 1999.
This paper examines the case of adjustment in a labor-intensive export industry (woolen knitwear) to understand how traditional sectors in developing regions cope with external crises and rise above them. India's woolen knitwear industry, concentrated in Ludhiana, recently survived two crisesÐthe collapse of its largest export market (the former Soviet Union), and the simultaneous opening up of the domestic market to freer trade. After an unusually short downturn, the cluster not only recovered rapidly, but is increasingly diversifying into more demanding and competitive external markets. Four factors are key to explaining this surprisingly resilient recovery. First, the best performing ®rms had a strong and simultaneous presence in dynamic segments of the domestic market alongside exports. This generated key organizational learning, and built managerial and production capacities that helped ®rms adapt quickly to more demanding markets later. Second, an important feature of the learning relationship between ®rst-time exporters and their foreign buyers was the small-scale nature of contracts and a ``customization of ®t'' between the producer and the feedback-giving intermediary. Third, better performing ®rms paid equal if not greater attention to making organizational changes in their work practices than to the purchase of new equipment. Fourth, the embedded nature of production networks, and the government's past programs to assist local ®rms have indirectly helped create a dynamic middle-tier of locally-rooted exporters who appear to be leading the cluster's transformation and modernization.
November 11, 2017.
Ever since work became splintered and distributed across the globe through h... more November 11, 2017.
Ever since work became splintered and distributed across the globe through highly mobile value chains, a central concern among labor advocates and regulators has been: how and under what conditions can good labor practices and safe working conditions be extended to the most vulnerable workers in lower tiers of global value chains? These spaces at the base of global supply chains are often hidden from view by layers of opaque, contingent and exploitative contractual ties that create new informalities at the bottom of even the most formalized production networks. A wave of recent industrial accidents—factory fires and building collapses—many of them in the garment districts of Bangladesh (e.g., Tazreen, Rana Plaza, but also elsewhere), has focused fresh attention on this dilemma. On the one hand, after more than twenty years of experimentation with private voluntary forms of regulation that emerged in the mid-1990s in the wake of anti-sweatshop movements in the US and later Europe, there is widespread agreement today that company codes of conduct and their elaborate monitoring systems, though important, are generally unable to reach beyond the top tiers of global supply chains. Private systems have evolved from the auditing-policing model of the late 1990s-early 2000s, to the more consultative and collaborative model of global partnerships and multi-stakeholder engagement of the last fifteen years (ETI, SAI, Better Work, FLA, WRC, The Alliance and the Accord). Despite these efforts there has been limited success in enforcing labor protections in lower tiers of global chains, let alone beyond them. One global trade unionist associated with a multi-stakeholder initiative went so far as to say that the CSR business had done little more than generate a " $60 billion industry… Imagine what could have happened if those funds had gone to the workers, we wouldn't still be trying to define what a living wage should look like. " 1 At the same time, it is also true that without any private regulation there would be many more Tazreens or Rana Plazas. Therein lies the dilemma for the world of private governance: how to ensure a wider socialization of safe and improved working conditions that can reach further and deeper down the value chain, and even beyond it, in the face of intensified competition, short lead times, low margins, relentless price pressures and the powerful search for low costs. On the other hand, and despite important advances, national and sub-national governments have also found it equally challenging to enforce or scale up the extension of formal protections and labor laws to the many tiers of informal work associated with both export and domestic production. Indeed, many countries are caught within dualistic debates about the effects of labor market regulation. Do regulations add to labor market rigidity, and thus " cost jobs " , or does undermining labor welfare undermine long term growth of productivity and hence employment? The outcomes of these debates, which turn upon the notion that low factor costs act as a draw for 1 Interview, LB, 2011.
Under what conditions can small suppliers and small firm dominated industries comply with stringe... more Under what conditions can small suppliers and small firm dominated industries comply with stringent standards without compromising their trade competitiveness? This question is at the heart a controversial debate about the emergence of environmental standards as a new variable in global trade and market access. There are few documented cases of success and the literature remains skeptical about the ability of small supplier firms to comply with stringent environmental regulations. This paper draws on the Indian leather industry's relatively effective compliance with two German bans on Azo dyes and PCPs to argue that the supposed trade-off between environmental compliance and export competitiveness is not inevitable. Critical to this compliance was not merely a model of private governance mediated by lead firms and global buyers but the institutionalization of compliance by the Indian state which became deeply involved in diffusing the new standards. The paper examines how and why the state got involved in ways that generated - and sustained - a process of negotiated collective action and broad-based environmental compliance by a small-firm dominated sector.
ABSTRACT Summaries In recent academic debates, upgrading has emerged as a key way for developing ... more ABSTRACT Summaries In recent academic debates, upgrading has emerged as a key way for developing countries to meet the competitive challenges of globalisation and trade liberalisation. This article draws on global commodity chains literature to comparatively explore the conditions within which upgrading occurs in two sectors: export horticulture in Kenya and textile/apparel in Tamil Nadu, India. In both sectors upgrading into new products, functions or markets has generated increased employment and sustained incomes. However, firms in horticulture and textile/apparel are governed by a small number of global buyers with demanding requirements. Firms without the linkages to these buyers or the capabilities to meet their requirements can be locked out of international markets. The article concludes that insertion into global value chains creates varying outcomes for developing country firms, both providing and circumscribing opportunities for broad-based development.
This book brings together a set of studies on labour conditions in global value chains (GVCs) in ... more This book brings together a set of studies on labour conditions in global value chains (GVCs) in a variety of sectors, ranging from labour-intensive sectors (garments, fresh fruits, tourism), to medium and high technology sectors (automobiles, electronics and telecom) and knowledge-intensive sectors (IT software services). The studies span a number of countries across Asia - Bangladesh, Cambodia, China, India, Indonesia, Sri Lanka and Vietnam. This book stands out for its grounded and detailed examination of both what is working and what is not working as Asian labour gets more embedded in global value chains. In trying to identify spaces for progressive action and policies in the current GVC-linked global work environment, the book goes against the grain in searching for an alternative to laissez faire forms of globalisation.
This book brings together a set of studies on labour conditions in global value chains (GVCs) in ... more This book brings together a set of studies on labour conditions in global value chains (GVCs) in a variety of sectors, ranging from labour-intensive sectors (garments, fresh fruits, tourism), to medium and high technology sectors (automobiles, electronics and telecom) and knowledge-intensive sectors (IT software services). The studies span a number of countries across Asia - Bangladesh, Cambodia, China, India, Indonesia, Sri Lanka and Vietnam. This book stands out for its grounded and detailed examination of both what is working and what is not working as Asian labour gets more embedded in global value chains. In trying to identify spaces for progressive action and policies in the current GVC-linked global work environment, the book goes against the grain in searching for an alternative to laissez faire forms of globalisation.
The key challenge facing Tamil Nadu’s industries as the economy opens up to greater competition w... more The key challenge facing Tamil Nadu’s industries as the economy opens up to greater competition with the adoption of WTO rules in the next four years, is to develop the capacity to comp ete with both, low cost as well as high quality producers in the liberalized domestic and export markets. To succeed in this environment, Tamil Nadu’s firms will have to compete on the basis of cost as well as quality, speed, consistency, timely delivery, improved production processes, and increased product variety. To be able to produce goods and services that are valued at home and abroad, and to do so at reasonable cost, local firms will need to improve their productivity, restructure their production technologies, upgrade the capabilities of their workforce, and increase private and public investment in manufacturing, service delivery, high quality infrastructure provision, and research and development. This has several implications for public institutions, and how public policy might help firms ...
and Summary • There is a growing consensus in policy circles that the path to growth for small fi... more and Summary • There is a growing consensus in policy circles that the path to growth for small firms in a trade liberalized world lies in their ability to learn how to upgrade their production capacities and access new and complex markets. This involves not merely access to new technology or to new subsidies, but efforts by local groups—industry associations or public agents at the local or regional level that can broker links between buyers and suppliers, between export markets, sources of customized feedback and training. • There are few blueprints or universally applicable solutions that fit all small firms. Rather, what works and why must be learned within the context of the sector and production relations that particular small firms are a part of. What works for one set of firms may be different from what works for another set of firms. The call is therefore to foster a reflective experimentalism by establishing an institutional structure that can help firms learn from their ow...
Abstract This study asks whether different types of water systems serve different types of commun... more Abstract This study asks whether different types of water systems serve different types of communities and differ with respect to affordability. Using 2017 data for California we match service area boundaries with census income data and rate structures to compare the geography, income distribution and affordability of water rates within communities served by systems of different ownership types. We find that for-profit and publicly owned systems serve communities of similar income distributions, while not-for-profit mutual water companies serve higher-income communities. Regulated privately-owned systems charge more for water while providing more low-income assistance and shutting off fewer households than publicly owned systems.
World Development 27(9): 1651-71 1999.
This paper examines the case of adjustment in a labor-int... more World Development 27(9): 1651-71 1999.
This paper examines the case of adjustment in a labor-intensive export industry (woolen knitwear) to understand how traditional sectors in developing regions cope with external crises and rise above them. India's woolen knitwear industry, concentrated in Ludhiana, recently survived two crisesÐthe collapse of its largest export market (the former Soviet Union), and the simultaneous opening up of the domestic market to freer trade. After an unusually short downturn, the cluster not only recovered rapidly, but is increasingly diversifying into more demanding and competitive external markets. Four factors are key to explaining this surprisingly resilient recovery. First, the best performing ®rms had a strong and simultaneous presence in dynamic segments of the domestic market alongside exports. This generated key organizational learning, and built managerial and production capacities that helped ®rms adapt quickly to more demanding markets later. Second, an important feature of the learning relationship between ®rst-time exporters and their foreign buyers was the small-scale nature of contracts and a ``customization of ®t'' between the producer and the feedback-giving intermediary. Third, better performing ®rms paid equal if not greater attention to making organizational changes in their work practices than to the purchase of new equipment. Fourth, the embedded nature of production networks, and the government's past programs to assist local ®rms have indirectly helped create a dynamic middle-tier of locally-rooted exporters who appear to be leading the cluster's transformation and modernization.
November 11, 2017.
Ever since work became splintered and distributed across the globe through h... more November 11, 2017.
Ever since work became splintered and distributed across the globe through highly mobile value chains, a central concern among labor advocates and regulators has been: how and under what conditions can good labor practices and safe working conditions be extended to the most vulnerable workers in lower tiers of global value chains? These spaces at the base of global supply chains are often hidden from view by layers of opaque, contingent and exploitative contractual ties that create new informalities at the bottom of even the most formalized production networks. A wave of recent industrial accidents—factory fires and building collapses—many of them in the garment districts of Bangladesh (e.g., Tazreen, Rana Plaza, but also elsewhere), has focused fresh attention on this dilemma. On the one hand, after more than twenty years of experimentation with private voluntary forms of regulation that emerged in the mid-1990s in the wake of anti-sweatshop movements in the US and later Europe, there is widespread agreement today that company codes of conduct and their elaborate monitoring systems, though important, are generally unable to reach beyond the top tiers of global supply chains. Private systems have evolved from the auditing-policing model of the late 1990s-early 2000s, to the more consultative and collaborative model of global partnerships and multi-stakeholder engagement of the last fifteen years (ETI, SAI, Better Work, FLA, WRC, The Alliance and the Accord). Despite these efforts there has been limited success in enforcing labor protections in lower tiers of global chains, let alone beyond them. One global trade unionist associated with a multi-stakeholder initiative went so far as to say that the CSR business had done little more than generate a " $60 billion industry… Imagine what could have happened if those funds had gone to the workers, we wouldn't still be trying to define what a living wage should look like. " 1 At the same time, it is also true that without any private regulation there would be many more Tazreens or Rana Plazas. Therein lies the dilemma for the world of private governance: how to ensure a wider socialization of safe and improved working conditions that can reach further and deeper down the value chain, and even beyond it, in the face of intensified competition, short lead times, low margins, relentless price pressures and the powerful search for low costs. On the other hand, and despite important advances, national and sub-national governments have also found it equally challenging to enforce or scale up the extension of formal protections and labor laws to the many tiers of informal work associated with both export and domestic production. Indeed, many countries are caught within dualistic debates about the effects of labor market regulation. Do regulations add to labor market rigidity, and thus " cost jobs " , or does undermining labor welfare undermine long term growth of productivity and hence employment? The outcomes of these debates, which turn upon the notion that low factor costs act as a draw for 1 Interview, LB, 2011.
Under what conditions can small suppliers and small firm dominated industries comply with stringe... more Under what conditions can small suppliers and small firm dominated industries comply with stringent standards without compromising their trade competitiveness? This question is at the heart a controversial debate about the emergence of environmental standards as a new variable in global trade and market access. There are few documented cases of success and the literature remains skeptical about the ability of small supplier firms to comply with stringent environmental regulations. This paper draws on the Indian leather industry's relatively effective compliance with two German bans on Azo dyes and PCPs to argue that the supposed trade-off between environmental compliance and export competitiveness is not inevitable. Critical to this compliance was not merely a model of private governance mediated by lead firms and global buyers but the institutionalization of compliance by the Indian state which became deeply involved in diffusing the new standards. The paper examines how and why the state got involved in ways that generated - and sustained - a process of negotiated collective action and broad-based environmental compliance by a small-firm dominated sector.
ABSTRACT Summaries In recent academic debates, upgrading has emerged as a key way for developing ... more ABSTRACT Summaries In recent academic debates, upgrading has emerged as a key way for developing countries to meet the competitive challenges of globalisation and trade liberalisation. This article draws on global commodity chains literature to comparatively explore the conditions within which upgrading occurs in two sectors: export horticulture in Kenya and textile/apparel in Tamil Nadu, India. In both sectors upgrading into new products, functions or markets has generated increased employment and sustained incomes. However, firms in horticulture and textile/apparel are governed by a small number of global buyers with demanding requirements. Firms without the linkages to these buyers or the capabilities to meet their requirements can be locked out of international markets. The article concludes that insertion into global value chains creates varying outcomes for developing country firms, both providing and circumscribing opportunities for broad-based development.
This book brings together a set of studies on labour conditions in global value chains (GVCs) in ... more This book brings together a set of studies on labour conditions in global value chains (GVCs) in a variety of sectors, ranging from labour-intensive sectors (garments, fresh fruits, tourism), to medium and high technology sectors (automobiles, electronics and telecom) and knowledge-intensive sectors (IT software services). The studies span a number of countries across Asia - Bangladesh, Cambodia, China, India, Indonesia, Sri Lanka and Vietnam. This book stands out for its grounded and detailed examination of both what is working and what is not working as Asian labour gets more embedded in global value chains. In trying to identify spaces for progressive action and policies in the current GVC-linked global work environment, the book goes against the grain in searching for an alternative to laissez faire forms of globalisation.
This book brings together a set of studies on labour conditions in global value chains (GVCs) in ... more This book brings together a set of studies on labour conditions in global value chains (GVCs) in a variety of sectors, ranging from labour-intensive sectors (garments, fresh fruits, tourism), to medium and high technology sectors (automobiles, electronics and telecom) and knowledge-intensive sectors (IT software services). The studies span a number of countries across Asia - Bangladesh, Cambodia, China, India, Indonesia, Sri Lanka and Vietnam. This book stands out for its grounded and detailed examination of both what is working and what is not working as Asian labour gets more embedded in global value chains. In trying to identify spaces for progressive action and policies in the current GVC-linked global work environment, the book goes against the grain in searching for an alternative to laissez faire forms of globalisation.
The key challenge facing Tamil Nadu’s industries as the economy opens up to greater competition w... more The key challenge facing Tamil Nadu’s industries as the economy opens up to greater competition with the adoption of WTO rules in the next four years, is to develop the capacity to comp ete with both, low cost as well as high quality producers in the liberalized domestic and export markets. To succeed in this environment, Tamil Nadu’s firms will have to compete on the basis of cost as well as quality, speed, consistency, timely delivery, improved production processes, and increased product variety. To be able to produce goods and services that are valued at home and abroad, and to do so at reasonable cost, local firms will need to improve their productivity, restructure their production technologies, upgrade the capabilities of their workforce, and increase private and public investment in manufacturing, service delivery, high quality infrastructure provision, and research and development. This has several implications for public institutions, and how public policy might help firms ...
and Summary • There is a growing consensus in policy circles that the path to growth for small fi... more and Summary • There is a growing consensus in policy circles that the path to growth for small firms in a trade liberalized world lies in their ability to learn how to upgrade their production capacities and access new and complex markets. This involves not merely access to new technology or to new subsidies, but efforts by local groups—industry associations or public agents at the local or regional level that can broker links between buyers and suppliers, between export markets, sources of customized feedback and training. • There are few blueprints or universally applicable solutions that fit all small firms. Rather, what works and why must be learned within the context of the sector and production relations that particular small firms are a part of. What works for one set of firms may be different from what works for another set of firms. The call is therefore to foster a reflective experimentalism by establishing an institutional structure that can help firms learn from their ow...
Abstract This study asks whether different types of water systems serve different types of commun... more Abstract This study asks whether different types of water systems serve different types of communities and differ with respect to affordability. Using 2017 data for California we match service area boundaries with census income data and rate structures to compare the geography, income distribution and affordability of water rates within communities served by systems of different ownership types. We find that for-profit and publicly owned systems serve communities of similar income distributions, while not-for-profit mutual water companies serve higher-income communities. Regulated privately-owned systems charge more for water while providing more low-income assistance and shutting off fewer households than publicly owned systems.
In an era of growing regionalization South Asia remains one of the least integrated regions in th... more In an era of growing regionalization South Asia remains one of the least integrated regions in the world. The region’s complicated political economy, its divided history and a maze of institutional and economic barriers are commonly blamed for the lack of a vibrant regional market in South Asia. A fraught history, however, need not be destiny. This short book explores the possibilities of deepening intraregional trade and investment in South Asia. Drawing on field work carried out in the region’s textile and garment industry, it examines the conditions under which feuding and mistrustful members can work as partners despite past grievances. The book finds evidence of the emergence of new intermediaries in the region, including a generation of younger entrepreneurs, with a more global worldview that seems to transcend the region’s divided history and is enabling more embedded trade ties. These new actors along with the growing size of the domestic market can serve as anchors for deeper regional engagement in the future. It is hoped that the evidence provided by this book can nudge the conversation about regional cooperation in South Asia in new directions.
Chapter 21, Labour in Global Value Chains in Asia, Eds. Dev Nathan, Meenu Tewari and Sandip Sarka... more Chapter 21, Labour in Global Value Chains in Asia, Eds. Dev Nathan, Meenu Tewari and Sandip Sarkar. Cambridge University Press. 2016
Chapter 13, Labour in Global Value Chains in Asia, Eds. Dev Nathan, Meenu Tewari and Sandip Sarka... more Chapter 13, Labour in Global Value Chains in Asia, Eds. Dev Nathan, Meenu Tewari and Sandip Sarkar. Cambridge University Press. 2016
Chapter 1, Labour in Global Value Chains in Asia, Eds. Dev Nathan, Meenu Tewari and Sandip Sarkar... more Chapter 1, Labour in Global Value Chains in Asia, Eds. Dev Nathan, Meenu Tewari and Sandip Sarkar. Cambridge University Press. 2016
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Conference Presentations by Meenu Tewari
This paper examines the case of adjustment in a labor-intensive export industry (woolen knitwear) to understand how traditional sectors in developing regions cope with external crises and rise above them. India's woolen knitwear industry, concentrated in Ludhiana, recently survived two crisesÐthe collapse of its largest export market (the former Soviet Union), and the simultaneous opening up of the domestic market to freer trade. After an unusually short downturn, the cluster not only recovered rapidly, but is increasingly diversifying into more demanding and competitive external markets. Four factors are key to explaining this surprisingly resilient recovery. First, the best performing ®rms had a strong and simultaneous presence in dynamic segments of the domestic market alongside exports. This generated key organizational learning, and built managerial and production capacities that helped ®rms adapt quickly to more demanding markets later. Second, an important feature of the learning relationship between ®rst-time exporters and their foreign buyers was the small-scale nature of contracts and a ``customization of ®t'' between the producer and the feedback-giving intermediary. Third, better performing ®rms paid equal if not greater attention to making organizational changes in their work practices than to the purchase of new equipment. Fourth, the embedded nature of production networks, and the government's past programs to assist local ®rms have indirectly helped create a dynamic middle-tier of locally-rooted exporters who appear to be leading the cluster's transformation and modernization.
Ever since work became splintered and distributed across the globe through highly mobile value chains, a central concern among labor advocates and regulators has been: how and under what conditions can good labor practices and safe working conditions be extended to the most vulnerable workers in lower tiers of global value chains? These spaces at the base of global supply chains are often hidden from view by layers of opaque, contingent and exploitative contractual ties that create new informalities at the bottom of even the most formalized production networks. A wave of recent industrial accidents—factory fires and building collapses—many of them in the garment districts of Bangladesh (e.g., Tazreen, Rana Plaza, but also elsewhere), has focused fresh attention on this dilemma. On the one hand, after more than twenty years of experimentation with private voluntary forms of regulation that emerged in the mid-1990s in the wake of anti-sweatshop movements in the US and later Europe, there is widespread agreement today that company codes of conduct and their elaborate monitoring systems, though important, are generally unable to reach beyond the top tiers of global supply chains. Private systems have evolved from the auditing-policing model of the late 1990s-early 2000s, to the more consultative and collaborative model of global partnerships and multi-stakeholder engagement of the last fifteen years (ETI, SAI, Better Work, FLA, WRC, The Alliance and the Accord). Despite these efforts there has been limited success in enforcing labor protections in lower tiers of global chains, let alone beyond them. One global trade unionist associated with a multi-stakeholder initiative went so far as to say that the CSR business had done little more than generate a " $60 billion industry… Imagine what could have happened if those funds had gone to the workers, we wouldn't still be trying to define what a living wage should look like. " 1 At the same time, it is also true that without any private regulation there would be many more Tazreens or Rana Plazas. Therein lies the dilemma for the world of private governance: how to ensure a wider socialization of safe and improved working conditions that can reach further and deeper down the value chain, and even beyond it, in the face of intensified competition, short lead times, low margins, relentless price pressures and the powerful search for low costs. On the other hand, and despite important advances, national and sub-national governments have also found it equally challenging to enforce or scale up the extension of formal protections and labor laws to the many tiers of informal work associated with both export and domestic production. Indeed, many countries are caught within dualistic debates about the effects of labor market regulation. Do regulations add to labor market rigidity, and thus " cost jobs " , or does undermining labor welfare undermine long term growth of productivity and hence employment? The outcomes of these debates, which turn upon the notion that low factor costs act as a draw for 1 Interview, LB, 2011.
Papers by Meenu Tewari
This paper examines the case of adjustment in a labor-intensive export industry (woolen knitwear) to understand how traditional sectors in developing regions cope with external crises and rise above them. India's woolen knitwear industry, concentrated in Ludhiana, recently survived two crisesÐthe collapse of its largest export market (the former Soviet Union), and the simultaneous opening up of the domestic market to freer trade. After an unusually short downturn, the cluster not only recovered rapidly, but is increasingly diversifying into more demanding and competitive external markets. Four factors are key to explaining this surprisingly resilient recovery. First, the best performing ®rms had a strong and simultaneous presence in dynamic segments of the domestic market alongside exports. This generated key organizational learning, and built managerial and production capacities that helped ®rms adapt quickly to more demanding markets later. Second, an important feature of the learning relationship between ®rst-time exporters and their foreign buyers was the small-scale nature of contracts and a ``customization of ®t'' between the producer and the feedback-giving intermediary. Third, better performing ®rms paid equal if not greater attention to making organizational changes in their work practices than to the purchase of new equipment. Fourth, the embedded nature of production networks, and the government's past programs to assist local ®rms have indirectly helped create a dynamic middle-tier of locally-rooted exporters who appear to be leading the cluster's transformation and modernization.
Ever since work became splintered and distributed across the globe through highly mobile value chains, a central concern among labor advocates and regulators has been: how and under what conditions can good labor practices and safe working conditions be extended to the most vulnerable workers in lower tiers of global value chains? These spaces at the base of global supply chains are often hidden from view by layers of opaque, contingent and exploitative contractual ties that create new informalities at the bottom of even the most formalized production networks. A wave of recent industrial accidents—factory fires and building collapses—many of them in the garment districts of Bangladesh (e.g., Tazreen, Rana Plaza, but also elsewhere), has focused fresh attention on this dilemma. On the one hand, after more than twenty years of experimentation with private voluntary forms of regulation that emerged in the mid-1990s in the wake of anti-sweatshop movements in the US and later Europe, there is widespread agreement today that company codes of conduct and their elaborate monitoring systems, though important, are generally unable to reach beyond the top tiers of global supply chains. Private systems have evolved from the auditing-policing model of the late 1990s-early 2000s, to the more consultative and collaborative model of global partnerships and multi-stakeholder engagement of the last fifteen years (ETI, SAI, Better Work, FLA, WRC, The Alliance and the Accord). Despite these efforts there has been limited success in enforcing labor protections in lower tiers of global chains, let alone beyond them. One global trade unionist associated with a multi-stakeholder initiative went so far as to say that the CSR business had done little more than generate a " $60 billion industry… Imagine what could have happened if those funds had gone to the workers, we wouldn't still be trying to define what a living wage should look like. " 1 At the same time, it is also true that without any private regulation there would be many more Tazreens or Rana Plazas. Therein lies the dilemma for the world of private governance: how to ensure a wider socialization of safe and improved working conditions that can reach further and deeper down the value chain, and even beyond it, in the face of intensified competition, short lead times, low margins, relentless price pressures and the powerful search for low costs. On the other hand, and despite important advances, national and sub-national governments have also found it equally challenging to enforce or scale up the extension of formal protections and labor laws to the many tiers of informal work associated with both export and domestic production. Indeed, many countries are caught within dualistic debates about the effects of labor market regulation. Do regulations add to labor market rigidity, and thus " cost jobs " , or does undermining labor welfare undermine long term growth of productivity and hence employment? The outcomes of these debates, which turn upon the notion that low factor costs act as a draw for 1 Interview, LB, 2011.