|
Field
Abstract
|
Before
Labor regulations aimed at improving working conditions may not be effectively enforced by weak states; I ask whether private sector efforts can achieve greater regulatory compliance. Specifically, I evaluate multinational retail and apparel firms’ efforts to enforce local labor laws on their suppliers in Bangladesh. I use a randomized controlled trial to study their program to achieve garment factories’ compliance with a local labor law. I analyze impacts on factories’ compliance levels and business outcomes and workers’ welfare. I also aim to study impacts on broader equilibrium compliance levels in the sector.
|
After
Weak states with poor institutions often do not have the capacity to implement and/or to enforce labor regulations aimed at improving working conditions. Increasingly, private actors have started enforcing labor standards in these countries, but the effects of their interventions on local firms and workers is currently unknown. This paper partners with a set of multinational retail and apparel firms to enforce local labor laws on their suppliers in Bangladesh. Specifically, I design and implement a randomized controlled trial with Bangladeshi garment factories, randomly enforcing a local labor law on supplier establishments. I aim to measure the impacts of this intervention on factories’ compliance levels and productivity as well as on workers’ welfare. I have also designed the intervention to facilitate exploring the broader equilibrium compliance levels in the sector.
|
|
Field
Experimental Design (Public)
|
Before
I am targeting having 80 factories in the intervention group, with 40 factories randomly assigned to the treatment group and 40 factories randomly assigned to the control group. The randomization procedure blocks factories based on size (binary distinction between factories with less than or equal to 3,000 employees and factories with greater than 3,000 employees). The study duration is for nine months. The randomized assignment to treatment and control statuses will be used to identify the intervention’s effects.
I am implementing independent data collection, with a data collection partner, at factories selected to be in the evaluation group. I am also collecting data from several other sources.
|
After
I am targeting having 80 factories in the intervention group, with 40 factories randomly assigned to the treatment group and 40 factories randomly assigned to the control group. The randomization procedure blocks factories based on size (binary distinction between factories with less than or equal to 3,000 employees and factories with greater than 3,000 employees) and on “readiness for SC Program,” or when the factory met Alliance prerequisites for participation in the SC Program (factories are randomized to treatment and control conditions in batches). The study duration is for nine months. The randomized assignment to treatment and control statuses will be used to identify the intervention’s effects.
I am implementing independent data collection, with a data collection partner, at factories selected to be in the evaluation group. I am also collecting data from several other sources.
|