Core labour standards and economic growth

The paper focuses on the impact of international core labour standards on economic growth. In a first step, we build a novel indicator, using correspondence analysis. The paper focuses on the four core labour standards recognized in the 1998 ILO Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work. Our two models (modelling of the steady-state-per capita income and modelling of the transition of per-capita income to its steady state value) are estimated for a large panel of countries (108) and, then, only for developing countries, for the period 1960 -1996. We use the Two Stage Least Square Method, to correct for potential problems of endogeneity. For the first model, we find that countries with higher labour standards have a higher steady-state level, all things being equal. Labour standards have positive and robust effects on per-capita income both for the world and developing countries. In the second model, the effects are non-linear. The effects of labour standards are positive and significant but are stronger for countries with medium or good labour standards. Overall, a good compliance with fundamental rights of workers has a positive effect on the long-term income and long-term growth. Thus, the development of core labour standards should be one of the goals of the development strategies