CED started working on a research project titled “The Roles of Information and Search Frictions in Determining Working Conditions in Bangladesh’s Apparel Sector” in September 2022.
The study is being funded by the Gender, Growth and Labour Markets in Low-Income Countries Programme (G²LM|LIC Programme) and implemented in collaboration with the University of Washington, Columbia University, BRAC Institute of Governance and Development (BIGD) of BRAC University. Dr. Rachel Heath (Associate Professor, University of Washington), and Dr. Laura Boudreau (Assistant Professor, Columbia University) are the Co-Prime Investigator (PI) of the project.
The pilot of the project “Pilot Data Collection for Search Frictions; Information about Job Vacancies in Bangladesh’s Apparel Sector” was conducted from 15 September to 31 December 2022. The pilot required precise information about export-oriented garment factories’ locations and job vacancies available there. CED surveyed a total of 270 factories in the pilot project from Mapped in Bangladesh (MiB) factories at Savar, Gazipur, and Narayanganj in Bangladesh.
The overall objective of the pilot project is to carry out research that has investigated to what extent the information and search frictions in Bangladesh’s labour market contribute to inefficient matching between workers and firms.
The pilot had the following components:
• Provision of geolocation data for factories in Dhaka Division of Bangladesh.
• Establishing relationships with factories and collecting initial vacancy data through an in-person visit.
• Collecting information each month about factories’ vacancies.
In this study, CED coordinated the factory surveys and follow-up phone call surveys with HR manager. CED also trained the Field Officers (FOs) for data collection from factories through in-person surveys and follow-up phone call surveys.