IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/ecolet/v228y2023ics0165176523001878.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Labor compliance programs in developing countries and trade flows: Evidence from Better Work

Author

Listed:
  • Robertson, Raymond

Abstract

Exporting apparel supports economic development by creating formal-sector employment opportunities for workers (especially women) whose best alternative domestic employment opportunities are informal work or agriculture. Apparel production is also highly scrutinized due to concerns about poor working conditions. The question of whether programs to improve working conditions are associated with more or less apparel exports remains a central concern to both current and potential apparel-exporting developing-country governments. This study estimates the difference in exports following country-level initiation of the ILO-IFC’s Better Work program that currently operates in 10 apparel-exporting developing countries and has a well-established positive effect on working conditions in participating apparel-exporting factories. Since the treatment time for Better Work varies by country, we apply the Callaway–Sant’anna​ time-varying-treatment difference-in-difference event study to the gravity-trade literature. The event study approach illustrates differences in post-treatment from pre-treatment trends. The results show that apparel exports increase significantly following the initiation of the Better Work program relative to apparel-exporting countries that did not enter Better Work, but total trade does not.

Suggested Citation

  • Robertson, Raymond, 2023. "Labor compliance programs in developing countries and trade flows: Evidence from Better Work," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 228(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:ecolet:v:228:y:2023:i:c:s0165176523001878
    DOI: 10.1016/j.econlet.2023.111162
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0165176523001878
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.econlet.2023.111162?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Günseli Berik & Yana Van Der Meulen Rodgers, 2010. "Options for enforcing labour standards: Lessons from Bangladesh And Cambodia," Journal of International Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 22(1), pages 56-85.
    2. Kimberly Ann Elliott & Richard B. Freeman, 2003. "Can Labor Standards Improve under Globalization?," Peterson Institute Press: All Books, Peterson Institute for International Economics, number 338, April.
    3. Maddalena Conte & Pierre Cotterlaz & Thierry Mayer, 2022. "The CEPII Gravity Database," Working Papers 2022-05, CEPII research center.
    4. Sant’Anna, Pedro H.C. & Zhao, Jun, 2020. "Doubly robust difference-in-differences estimators," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 219(1), pages 101-122.
    5. Raymond Robertson & Drusilla Brown & Rajeev Dehejia, 2021. "Working conditions and factory survival: Evidence from better factories Cambodia," Review of Development Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 25(1), pages 228-254, February.
    6. Raymond Robertson, 2020. "Lights On: How Transparency Increases Compliance in Cambodian Global Value Chains," ILR Review, Cornell University, ILR School, vol. 73(4), pages 939-968, August.
    7. Callaway, Brantly & Sant’Anna, Pedro H.C., 2021. "Difference-in-Differences with multiple time periods," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 225(2), pages 200-230.
    8. Melanie Beresford, 2009. "The Cambodian clothing industry in the post-MFA environment: a review of developments," Journal of the Asia Pacific Economy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 14(4), pages 366-388.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Raymond Robertson & Drusilla Brown & Rajeev Dehejia, 2021. "Working conditions and factory survival: Evidence from better factories Cambodia," Review of Development Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 25(1), pages 228-254, February.
    2. Robertson, Raymond, 2019. "Working Conditions, Transparency, and Compliance in Global Value Chains: Evidence from Better Work Jordan," IZA Discussion Papers 12794, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    3. Brown, Drusilla & Dehejia, Rajeev & Robertson, Raymond, 2016. "Laws, Costs, Norms, and Learning: Improving Working Conditions in Developing Countries," IZA Discussion Papers 10025, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    4. Raymond Robertson, 2020. "Lights On: How Transparency Increases Compliance in Cambodian Global Value Chains," ILR Review, Cornell University, ILR School, vol. 73(4), pages 939-968, August.
    5. Raymond Robertson, 2022. "Pioneering a new approach to improving working conditions in developing countries: Better Factories Cambodia," Chapters, in: Handbook on Globalisation and Labour Standards, chapter 20, pages 359-381, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    6. Staples, Aaron J. & Deming, Kristopher & Malone, Trey & Carpenter, Craig W. & Weiler, Stephan, 2024. "Pouring the Paycheck Protection Program into craft beer: PPP employment effects in service-intensive industries," Journal of Business Venturing Insights, Elsevier, vol. 21(C).
    7. Xin Nie & Jianxian Wu & Han Wang & Weijuan Li & Chengdao Huang & Lihua Li, 2022. "Contributing to carbon peak: Estimating the causal impact of eco‐industrial parks on low‐carbon development in China," Journal of Industrial Ecology, Yale University, vol. 26(4), pages 1578-1593, August.
    8. Bahia, Kalvin & Castells, Pau & Cruz, Genaro & Masaki, Takaaki & Pedrós, Xavier & Pfutze, Tobias & Rodríguez-Castelán, Carlos & Winkler, Hernán, 2024. "The welfare effects of mobile broadband internet: Evidence from Nigeria," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 170(C).
    9. Cotti, Chad & Courtemanche, Charles & Maclean, Joanna Catherine & Nesson, Erik & Pesko, Michael F. & Tefft, Nathan W., 2022. "The effects of e-cigarette taxes on e-cigarette prices and tobacco product sales: Evidence from retail panel data," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 86(C).
    10. Lewis, Blane D., 2022. "The impact of democratic elections on taxation: Quasi-experimental evidence from subnational Indonesia," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 211(C).
    11. Simone Balestra & Helge Liebert & Nicole Maestas & Tisamarie B. Sherry, 2021. "Behavioral Responses to Supply-Side Drug Policy During the Opioid Epidemic," NBER Working Papers 29596, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    12. Philipp Barteska & Jay Euijung Lee, 2024. "Bureaucrats and the Korean export miracle," Discussion Papers 2024-11, Nottingham Interdisciplinary Centre for Economic and Political Research (NICEP).
    13. Hans-Bernd Schaefer & Rok Spruk, 2024. "Islamic Law, Western European Law and the Roots of Middle East's Long Divergence: a Comparative Empirical Investigation (800-1600)," Papers 2401.14435, arXiv.org, revised Mar 2024.
    14. Wookun Kim, 2024. "Baby Bonus, Fertility, and Missing Women," CESifo Working Paper Series 11215, CESifo.
    15. Dmitry Arkhangelsky & Guido Imbens, 2023. "Causal Models for Longitudinal and Panel Data: A Survey," Papers 2311.15458, arXiv.org, revised Jun 2024.
    16. Lyndon Moore & Gertjan Verdickt, 2022. "Railroad Bailouts in the Great Depression," Papers 2205.13025, arXiv.org, revised May 2023.
    17. Isabelle Chort & Berk Öktem, 2024. "Agricultural shocks, coping policies and deforestation: Evidence from the coffee leaf rust epidemic in Mexico," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 106(3), pages 1020-1057, May.
    18. Roth, Jonathan & Sant’Anna, Pedro H.C. & Bilinski, Alyssa & Poe, John, 2023. "What’s trending in difference-in-differences? A synthesis of the recent econometrics literature," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 235(2), pages 2218-2244.
    19. Cornelia Chadi, 2022. "Smoking Bans, Leisure Time and Subjective Well-being," Journal of Happiness Studies, Springer, vol. 23(8), pages 3765-3797, December.
    20. Mounu Prem & Juan Vargas & Miguel E. Purroy, 2021. "Landmines: The Local Effects of Demining," Empirical Studies of Conflict Project (ESOC) Working Papers 28, Empirical Studies of Conflict Project.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:ecolet:v:228:y:2023:i:c:s0165176523001878. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/ecolet .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.