Monopsony and Forced Labour
Forced labour is most often treated as a problem of criminal behaviour, weak enforcement, or failures of corporate compliance. Policy responses therefore focus on detection and punishment through audits, import bans, and due-diligence requirements. While these tools are important, forced labour persists across sectors and regulatory regimes. Its persistence points to a deeper, structural cause.
This brief argues that forced labour is best understood as an outcome of labour-market power. When workers face severe limits on mobility because of recruitment debt, tied migration systems, geographic isolation, or the suppression of collective organization, employers gain disproportionate control over wages and working conditions. In such contexts, coercion becomes not an exception but a predictable risk. The contribution of this brief is to reframe forced labour as a structural form of labour-market exploitation rooted in monopsony power— implying that effective policy must address the economic conditions that make coercion profitable, not only the violations themselves. Understanding forced labour through a monopsony framework shifts policy attention from isolated violations to the economic structures that make exploitation profitable and persistent.