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Reputational Consequences of Labor Coercion: Evidence from Assam's Tea Plantations

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  • Gupta, Bishnupriya
  • Swamy, Anand V.

Abstract

The right to coerce an employee is seen as advantageous to employers. However, if coercion gives employers a bad reputation, workers may be harder to recruit. We study a unique setting in Assam's tea plantations in the 19th century, where migrant workers were recruited under two different indentured contracts, one of which was more coercive, and gained notoriety in the national press and policy circles. Using newly collected panel data on annual migration flows to seven districts over the period 1883–1900, we find that the response of migration to increased demand for labor, proxied by a rising tea price, was lower for the contract that had a bad reputation. Workers migrated under the more coercive contract only when uninformed or misled about the terms of their employment. We identify the effect of information flow by distinguishing between recruiters with and without social connections with the workers.

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  • Gupta, Bishnupriya & Swamy, Anand V., 2017. "Reputational Consequences of Labor Coercion: Evidence from Assam's Tea Plantations," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 127(C), pages 431-439.
  • Handle: RePEc:eee:deveco:v:127:y:2017:i:c:p:431-439
    DOI: 10.1016/j.jdeveco.2016.12.013
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Cited by:

    1. Fenske, James & Gupta, Bishnupriya & Neumann, Cora, 2022. "Missing Women In Colonial India," CEPR Discussion Papers 17189, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    2. Alexander Persaud, 2023. "A (paid) passage to India: Migration and revealed willingness to pay for upper‐caste status," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 61(3), pages 652-674, July.
    3. Peter Sandholt Jensen & Cristina Victoria Radu & Battista Severgnini & Paul Sharp, 2018. "The introduction of serfdom and labour markets," Working Papers 0140, European Historical Economics Society (EHES).
    4. Geloso, Vincent & Kufenko, Vadim & Arsenault-Morin, Alex P., 2023. "The lesser shades of labor coercion: The impact of seigneurial tenure in nineteenth-century Quebec," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 163(C).
    5. Danzer, Alexander M. & Grundke, Robert, 2020. "Export price shocks and rural labor markets: The role of labor market distortions," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 145(C).
    6. Neha Hui & Uma S. Kambhampati, 2022. "Between unfreedoms: The role of caste in decisions to repatriate among indentured workers," Economic History Review, Economic History Society, vol. 75(2), pages 421-446, May.

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