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Nancy H. Chau

Cornell University, USA, and IZA, Germany

IZA World of Labor role

Author

Current position

Professor, Charles H. Dyson School of Applied Economics and Management, Cornell University, USA

Research interest

Development economics, international economics, labor economics, regional economics, economics of uncertainty and information

Website

https://dyson.cornell.edu/faculty-research/faculty/hyc3/

Past positions

Associate Professor, Department of Applied Economics and Management, Cornell University (January 2003–June 2010); Assistant Professor, Department of Applied Economics and Management, Cornell University (August 1999–December 2002); Assistant Professor, Department of Economics, Southern Illinois University (August 1995–May 1999)

Qualifications

PhD in Economics, The Johns Hopkins University, USA, 1995

Selected publications

  • “Contract employment as a worker discipline device.” Journal of Development Economics 149 (2021) (with A. K. Basu and V. Soundararajan).

  • “Contract employment in developing countries.” In: Zimmermann K. F. (eds). Handbook of Labor, Human Resources and Population Economics. Cham: Springer, 2021 (with A. K. Basu and V. Soundararajan).

  • “Sweatshop Labor." In: Zimmermann K. F. (eds). Handbook of Labor, Human Resources and Population Economics. Cham: Springer, 2020.

  • “Employer power, labor saving technical change, and inequality.” In: Banerjee, A., K. Basu, and E. Verhoogen (eds). Development, Distribution, and Markets. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2021 (with R. Kanbur).

  • “Rethinking border enforcement, permanent and circular migration.” Economic Modelling 108 (2022) (with A. K. Basu and B. Park).

article(s)

  • Offshoring and labor markets in developing countries

    Lessons learned and questions remaining about offshoring and labor markets in developing countries

    Arnab K. BasuNancy H. Chau, September 2022
    Developing countries are often seen as unquestionable beneficiaries in the phenomenal rise of global value chains in international trade. Offshoring—the cross-border trade in intermediate goods and services which facilitate country-level specialization in subsets of production tasks—enables an early start in global trade integration even when the requisite technology and knowhow for cost-effective production from scratch to finish are not yet acquired. A growing economics literature suggests a more nuanced view, however. Policymakers should be mindful of issues related to inequality across firms and wages, labor standards, and effects of trade policy.
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