Why Countries Sign Bilateral Labor Agreements

43 Pages Posted: 4 Mar 2017 Last revised: 30 Aug 2017

See all articles by Adam Chilton

Adam Chilton

University of Chicago - Law School

Eric A. Posner

University of Chicago - Law School

Date Written: August 14, 2017

Abstract

Countries have entered several hundred bilateral labor agreements (BLAs), which control the conditions under which source countries send migrant workers to host countries. What has not been fully explained, or empirically tested, is why countries would sign these agreements. We conduct a statistical examination of these agreements using an original data set of 582 BLAs entered into from 1945 to 2015. We find that the standard explanation for BLAs — that they are likely to be formed when potential host countries are dramatically wealthier and more repressive than potential source countries — is true for host countries in the Middle East, but this pattern does not hold for other countries that have formed BLAs. We also find evidence that countries that enter BLAs experience greater migration flows than countries that do not, though we are not able to verify that the BLAs cause this difference.

Keywords: Bilateral Labour Agreements; Migration; Immigration; Treaties; International Law; Human Rights

Suggested Citation

Chilton, Adam and Posner, Eric A., Why Countries Sign Bilateral Labor Agreements (August 14, 2017). Journal of Legal Studies, Forthcoming, University of Chicago Coase-Sandor Institute for Law & Economics Research Paper No. 807, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2926994 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2926994

Adam Chilton (Contact Author)

University of Chicago - Law School ( email )

1111 E. 60th St.
Chicago, IL 60637
United States

HOME PAGE: http://www.adamchilton.org

Eric A. Posner

University of Chicago - Law School ( email )

1111 E. 60th St.
Chicago, IL 60637
United States
773-702-0425 (Phone)
773-702-0730 (Fax)

HOME PAGE: http://www.law.uchicago.edu/faculty/posner-e/

Do you have negative results from your research you’d like to share?

Paper statistics

Downloads
531
Abstract Views
3,311
Rank
96,169
PlumX Metrics