The Social Effects of Global Trade ─ Quantifying Impacts Using Multi-regional Input-output Analysis

The inclusion of qualitative social data into global environmental and economic input-output (IO) models remained illusive for many years. It was not until around 2013 that researchers found ways to include data, for example, on poverty, inequality, and worker safety, into IO models capable of tracing global supply chains. The sustainable development goals have now propelled this work onto the world stage with some urgency. They have shone a spotlight onto social conditions around the world and brought global trade into the frame for its ability to influence social conditions for good or ill.

This book provides a compilation of groundbreaking work on social indicators from the most prominent IO research groups from a wide range of academic backgrounds and from around the world. In addition, it frames this work in the real world of politics, human rights, and business, bringing together a multidisciplinary team to demonstrate the power of IO to illuminate some of the world’s most pressing problems. Edited by well-known researchers in the area, Joy Murray, Arunima Malik, and Arne Geschke, the book is designed to appeal to a broad academic and business audience. While many chapters include technical details and references for follow-up reading, it is possible to omit those sections and yet gain a deep appreciation of the power of IO to address seemingly intractable problems.

Joy Murray is a senior research fellow with the Integrated Sustainability Analysis (ISA) group in the University of Sydney’s School of Physics, Australia. Before joining the ISA, Murray worked for over 25 years in education, preschool to postgraduate. She has also worked with residents of government housing estates to collaboratively develop leadership capacity. With the ISA, in addition to contributing to numerous journal articles, she has edited The Sustainability Practitioner’s Guide to Input-Output Analysis (2010), Enough for All Forever: A Handbook for Learning about Sustainability (2012), The Sustainability Practitioner’s Guide to Multiregional Input-Output Analysis (2013), and The Sustainability Practitioner’s Guide to Social Analysis and Assessment (2016).