Thursday 20 March 2025 13:45 - 15:00

MAR 6.33, 6th floor, The Marshall Building, 44 Lincoln's Inn Fields, London WC2A 3LY

About this event

International buyers vary in their sourcing strategies, with some adopting “relational” strategies that entail sourcing from fewer suppliers and providing higher rents (Cajal-Grossi, Macchiavello, and Noguera, 2023), and others adopting more "spot" strategies that entail sourcing from many suppliers and providing lower rents. We document that workers employed by Bangladeshi garment exporters that supply to relational buyers experience better working conditions and have longer tenure. We hypothesize that exposure to relational buyers induces exporters to invest in capabilities to build stronger relationships with their workers (Gibbons and Henderson, 2012) and in better working conditions. This may be because relational buyers care more about working conditions or because performance in the relational contract requires or induces better conditions. Using exposure and responses to the 2013 Rana Plaza disaster and to COVID, our preliminary results show that these correlations are not entirely due to selection of suppliers with ex ante better conditions. Nor do relational buyers appear to care more about working conditions. Instead, relational buyers behave more responsibly in their trading relationships, which may improve conditions for workers.

Participants are expected to adhere to the CEP Events Code of Conduct.

Directions

This event will take place in MAR 6.33, 6th floor, The Marshall Building, 44 Lincoln's Inn Fields, London WC2A 3LY.

This series is part of the CEP's Growth programme.