The Effects of International Scrutiny on Manufacturing Workers: Evidence from the Rana Plaza Collapse in Bangladesh

Abstract

The Policy Research Working Paper Series disseminates the findings of work in progress to encourage the exchange of ideas about development issues. An objective of the series is to get the findings out quickly, even if the presentations are less than fully polished. The papers carry the names of the authors and should be cited accordingly. The findings, interpretations, and conclusions expressed in this paper are entirely those of the authors. They do not necessarily represent the views of the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development/World Bank and its affiliated organizations, or those of the Executive Directors of the World Bank or the governments they represent.

Labour conditions in regional versus global value chains: Insights from apparel firms in Lesotho and Eswatini

“…Previous studies have shown how female workers withstand significantly lower working conditions compared to men (Barrientos 2019), while seniority, education, and age can also significantly influence access to labour entitlements (Huynh 2016;Węziak-Białowolska et al 2019;Bossavie et al 2020).…”

Responsible Sourcing? Theory and Evidence from Costa Rica

“…As these policies have the stated objective to benefit worker welfare in sourcing markets, our analysis sets out to investigate this question theoretically and empirically. 4 Bossavie et al (2020) study the effects of improvements in Bangladeshi labor regulations after the factory collapse of Rana Plaza in 2013. Using a synthetic control approach, they find that working conditions improved whereas female wages decreased.…”

Characteristics of Pedestrians in Bangladesh Who Did Not Receive Public Education on Road Safety

“…Although this sector has immense contribution to economy, there are many problems associated with this sector which relate to the employees' social, housing, transport, safety and security issues. The safety issue that has generated a lot of attention in both the academia and media is workers' safety, especially building and fire safety, such as the collapse of Rana Plaza in 2013 [8]. However, the traffic safety of the employees is one major safety issue that has yet to receive sufficient attention in the work safety literature.…”