Unrest, layoffs, and productivity at a Bangladeshi sweater factory

Akerlof, Robert, Ashraf, Anik, Macchiavello, Rocco ORCID: 0009-0007-5465-3153 and Rabbani, Atonu (2025) Unrest, layoffs, and productivity at a Bangladeshi sweater factory. Journal of the European Economic Association. ISSN 1542-4774 (In Press)

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Abstract

Conflicts between management and workers are common in newly industrializing countries. Combining ethnographic, survey and administrative records from a Bangladeshi sweater factory, we study how workers responded when management laid off a quarter of the workers following a period of labor unrest. After the unrest, the factory experienced a substantial drop in productivity. Among surviving workers, those who likely had strong social connections – friends – among fired co-workers suffered relatively larger declines in productivity. Additional evidence on potential mechanism indicates a deliberate shading of effort to punish the factory’s management.

Item Type:	Article
Additional Information:	© 2025 The Author(s)
Divisions:	Management
Subjects:	H Social Sciences > HD Industries. Land use. Labor H Social Sciences > HB Economic Theory H Social Sciences > HD Industries. Land use. Labor > HD28 Management. Industrial Management
JEL classification:	J - Labor and Demographic Economics > J5 - Labor-Management Relations, Trade Unions, and Collective Bargaining > J50 - General M - Business Administration and Business Economics; Marketing; Accounting > M5 - Personnel Economics > M50 - General O - Economic Development, Technological Change, and Growth > O1 - Economic Development > O12 - Microeconomic Analyses of Economic Development
Date Deposited:	27 Oct 2025 10:36
Last Modified:	27 Oct 2025 10:42
URI:	http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/id/eprint/129978

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