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American Economic Review Vol. 105 No. 5 2015

The Market for Training Services: A Demand Experiment with Bangladeshi Garment Factories

Rocco Macchiavello1; Atonu Rabbani2; Christopher Woodruff1

1 Economics Department, University of Warwick, Coventry, CV47AL, UK (e-mail: ) · 2 Department of Economics, University of Dhaka, Dhaka 1000, Bangladesh (e-mail: )

open access

Abstract

We marketed a training program for lower level managers (line supervisors) to large factories in the Bangladeshi ready-made garment industry. Take-up of the program (even for a free slot) was low, due to intense production pressures, fire-fighting and concerns over retention of trained workers. Take-up is quite insensitive to pricing. There was higher interest and demand in training modules aimed at improving production processes and quality, rather than human resources and social compliance. Since the program was priced close to a commercially viable rate, it might be possible to develop a market provided they could be proved to be effective.

DOI
10.1257/aer.p20151079
Volume
105
Issue
5
Pages
300-304
Language
en
Sources
bibtex:phds-export.bib openalex crossref

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