Project Details
Disciplines: International Political Economy ; Management Science ; Industrial Relations
Principal investigators: Professor Damian Raess & Professor Matthew Amengual
Institutional lead: World Trade Institute, University of Bern
Funder: Swiss National Science Foundation
Start date (SNSF funding): 01 January 2022
Third-party funder: Centre for Corporate Reputation, University of Oxford
Key words: private labor regulation, trade, capacity building, sustainable social development, developing countries, free trade agreements, globalization
The Team
This project is based at the World Trade Institute of the University of Bern, Switzerland, but it is conducted in collaboration with colleagues at the Saïd Business School, University of Oxford. It brings together a team of experts working on the interface between international trade, global value chains and labor standards. Building on a collaboration with a business partner, it has relevance for the world of policy and practice.
Dr Damian Raess
Principal Investigator
Dr. Damian Raess co-leads the project and is known for his work on globalization and industrial relations, and the design and impact of labor provisions in trade agreements. Raess is an SNSF Professor of Political Science at the World Trade Institute, University of Bern, Switzerland.
Dr Matthew Amengual
Principal Investigator
Dr Matthew Amengual co-leads this project. He has conducted research on labor standards in global supply chains for over a decade. Amengual is Associate Professor in International Business at the Saïd Business School, University of Oxford.
Dr Joseph Bommarito
Core Team Member
Dr Joseph Bommarito is a postdoctoral researcher at the World Trade Institute, University of Bern. He graduated with a degree in political science in 2021 and works on understanding how supply chains link countries together. Joseph’s recent research has looked at how the global maritime industry creates spatial patterns affecting global trade and investment.
Dr Alessandro Guasti
Core Team Member
Dr Alessandro Guasti is a postdoctoral research fellow at the Centre for Corporate Reputation in the Saïd Business School, Oxford University. Alessandro’s research interests focus on trade, globalization and labor standards. He studies the effects of global governance tools such as private regulation and preferential trade agreements with labor clauses on social compliance and trade relationships.
Advisory Board
We have constituted an advisory board composed of three individuals with extensive research and policy experience in the area of voluntary sustainability initiatives. Their role vis-à-vis the project is a reviewer role, and they will ensure that our research is relevant for policy and practice.
Guillaume Delautre
Technical officer/Economist, ILO Employment Policy Department
Dr Sara Elder
Policy Advisor, International Institute for Sustainable Development
Malena Wåhlin
Program Manager and Coordinator, Human Rights Defenders and Civic Space, Swedwatch
Alexandra Eugster
MSc Applied Economic Analysis, University of Bern
Alessandro Giammaria
St Cross College, MPhil in Economics, University of Oxford