This one-day international symposium brought together leading researchers to present cutting-edge analysis and evidence on how developing countries can leverage trade for both social upgrading and inclusive development, particularly more and better jobs. The symposium addressed the following themes: trade and informality; trade and inequality; trade and workers’ skills; and trade agreements and labour markets.

This symposium was co-organized by the ILO and the University of Geneva with funding from the European Union and the Swiss Programme for Research on Global Issues for Development. This symposium was part of activities under the ILO-EU project "Strengthening the Impact on Employment of Sector and Trade Policies (STRENGTHEN)".

Agenda of the event

Report on Symposium Proceedings

Papers and Presentations

1) Trade and Informality: Evidence from Brazil (Presentation)
Vladimir Ponczek and Gabriel Ulyssea

2) Trade Openness Effects through Price Channels on Firms’ Informal Employment: The Case of Peru (Presentation)
Jorge Dávalos

3) Trade and Inequality: From Theory to Estimation (Presentation)
Elhanan Helpman, Oleg Itskhoki, Marc Muendler and Stephen Redding

4) Trade, Inequality and Costly Redistribution (Presentation)
Pol Antras, Alonso de Gortari and Oleg Itskhoki

5) Do Multinational Firms Transfer Culture? Evidence on Female Employment in China (Presentation)
Hei Wai Tang and Yifan Zhang

6) Wage and Employment Gains From Exports: Evidence from Developing Countries (Presentation)
Nicolas Depetris Chauvin and Guido Porto

7) Do PTAs including Labor Provisions reduce Collective Labor Rights Violations? The Role of Labor Cooperation Provisions
Damian Raess, Dora Sari and David Kucera

8) The Distributional Consequences of Preferential Trade Liberalization: Firm-Level Evidence (Presentation)
Leonardo Baccini, Pablo M. Pinto and Stephen Weymouth