The extent to which low-wage trade competition in the service sector
with posted workers should be allowed in the EU has been a hot issue
recently. In Sweden, the so-called Vaxholm conflict has become the
symbol for this debate.
In the report Trade in Services and in Goods
with Low-Wage Countries – How Do Attitudes Differ and How Are They
Formed? economists and psychologists analyse the attitudes to different
types of low-wage trade competition. The results confirm that attitudes
to low-wage trade competition in services requiring the posting of
foreign workers are more negative than to conventional low-wage trade
in goods. Attitude formation seems to have both "rational" and
"irrational" components. This holds for both those in favour of
low-wage competition in services trade and those against, although the
degree of "rationality" appears to be larger for the former group.
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