Summary
The paper uses national survey statistics to estimate the effect of post Rana plaza on hourly wage, working conditions, hours, and written contract in the garment industry in Bangladesh. Using panel data collected before and after the Rana Plaza collapse, and constructing a synthetic control group from other industries, the authors explore changes before and after and with and without the reforms that took place after the Rana plaza collapse. They found increased working conditions in increase wages for female workers, but only in the short run. By 2016, female workers had suffered reductions in wages (a 20% wage reduction) and suggestive evidence of a decrease in job security (a 19 percentage point decrease in the receipt of contracts). They explain these findings highlighting the fact that employers compensated for the cost of improving working conditions (many of which were differentially utilized by women, such as sick leave) by lowering the wages of the female workers for whom the new minimum wage was not binding. They recommend to policy and researchers to to include as long a time horizon as possible in order to make sure positive effects are sustained. They also recommend take into account such potential adverse effects in the future by implementing policies that can mitigate adverse effects from improving working conditions on jb security and wages.