This dissertation studies the economics of collective action. It explores how top-down political institutions and events, as well as bottom-up workers’ behaviors and conditions, influence each other. In the first chapter, “Who Bears the Cost of Nationalism? A Spatial Analysis on the Unintended Spillover Effects of Boycotts,” I study the repercussions of consumer boycotts on the employment of the very workers that produce the boycotted products. In the second chapter, “Raising Grievances to the State: The Political Economic Effects of Anti-Corruption Crackdown on Labor Activism in China,” I explore how firm-government corruption influences workers’ decisions to strike. In the third chapter, “Social Connections and Labor Strikes,” I analyze how exposure to labor strikes through social media in connected locations can facilitate labor strikes among workers in a particular location. The dissertation addresses broader societal implications: the unintended consequences of nationalistic movements, the effectiveness of government anti-corruption policies in improving labor welfare, and the impact of social networks on the spread and outcomes of labor activism.