Work-progression and Productivity Toolkit: Increasing Work-advancement Opportunities for Female Workers and Improving Productivity in Bangladesh's Garment Industry

Last registered on December 14, 2016

Pre-Trial

General Information

Title

RCT ID

AEARCTR-0001843

Initial registration date

December 14, 2016

Initial registration date is when the trial was registered.

It corresponds to when the registration was submitted to the Registry to be reviewed for publication.

First published

December 14, 2016, 3:15 PM EST

First published corresponds to when the trial was first made public on the Registry after being reviewed.

Locations

Country

Bangladesh

Region

Dhaka

Primary Investigator

Name

Christopher Woodruff

Affiliation

University of Oxford

Contact Primary Investigator

Other Primary Investigator(s)

PI Name

Hannah Uckat

PI Affiliation

University of Oxford

Contact Investigator

Additional Trial Information

Status

On going

Start date

2016-11-29

End date

2018-03-31

Keywords

Labor

Additional Keywords

Firms, Productivity, Skills training, Ready-made garment sector, Bangladesh

JEL code(s)

D23, J16, J24, J53, L23, O12

Secondary IDs

Abstract

The Bangladeshi garment industry was instrumental in expanding women’s employment opportunities in the urban job market. However, the positions available to women at factories remain mostly limited to those at the machine-operator level. Building on findings from Macchiavello et al (2015) we implement a shorter and less costly training program for female operators that focuses on soft skills. Randomizing individual workers into three groups, we seek to determine whether soft skills training or hard skills training is a more effective and efficient means to promoting female advancement. We also investigate the effects of and interactions with a cross-cut training for higher-level factory management, which provides managers with tools for standardized worker evaluations and demonstrates the effectiveness of female supervision.

External Link(s)

Registration Citation

Citation

Uckat, Hannah and Christopher Woodruff. 2016. "Work-progression and Productivity Toolkit: Increasing Work-advancement Opportunities for Female Workers and Improving Productivity in Bangladesh's Garment Industry." AEA RCT Registry. December 14. https://doi.org/10.1257/rct.1843-1.0

Former Citation

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Experimental Details

Interventions

Intervention(s)

The Operator training programme consists of a soft skills component and a technical skills component.

The Management training programme includes training on standardized worker evaluations and demonstrations of the effectiveness of female supervisors.

Intervention Start Date

2016-12-15

Intervention End Date

2017-10-31

Primary Outcomes

Primary Outcomes (end points)

From daily production data: Line efficiency, alteration rates, rejection rates
From self-reported survey measures: Promotions, assessment of trainees by subordinates and superiors, technical skills, confidence and leadership (locus of control, self-efficacy, multi-factor leadership, emotional competence), household decision-making
From administrative data: Promotions, absenteeism, job migration

Primary Outcomes (explanation)

Secondary Outcomes

Secondary Outcomes (end points)

Secondary Outcomes (explanation)

Experimental Design

For the Operator training programme, the trainees will be randomly allocated to three groups:
1) Soft skills only training
2) Soft skills and hard skills training
3) Control group

For the Management training, factories will be randomly allocated to two groups:
1) Treatment
2) Control

Experimental Design Details

Randomization Method

Operator training programme: Public lottery in the presence of trainees in each participating factory.

Management training programme: Private, stratified randomization with a pre-specified re-randomisation procedure, implemented on a computer.

Randomization Unit

Operator training programme: individual

Management training programme: factory

Was the treatment clustered?

Yes

Experiment Characteristics

Sample size: planned number of clusters

Operator training programme: average of 9 individuals in each of 28 factories

Management training programme: 28 factories

Sample size: planned number of observations

Operator training programme: 252 individuals Management training programme: 28 factories

Sample size (or number of clusters) by treatment arms

Operator training programme:
1) Soft skills only training: 84 individuals
2) Soft skills and hard skills training: 84 individuals
3) Control group: 84 individuals

For the Management training, factories will be randomly allocated to two groups:
1) Treatment: 14 factories
2) Control: 14 factories

Minimum detectable effect size for main outcomes (accounting for sample design and clustering)

Supporting Documents and Materials

IRB