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Unrest, Layoffs, and Productivity at a Bangladeshi Sweater Factory,

Robert Akerlof et al.

Journal of the European Economic Association2026https://doi.org/10.1093/jeea/jvag017article
AJG 4ABDC A*
Weight
0.50

What the paper says

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.

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https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1093/jeea/jvag017

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@article{robert2026,
  title        = {{Unrest, Layoffs, and Productivity at a Bangladeshi Sweater Factory,}},
  author       = {Robert Akerlof et al.},
  journal      = {Journal of the European Economic Association},
  year         = {2026},
  doi          = {https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1093/jeea/jvag017},
}

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Unrest, Layoffs, and Productivity at a Bangladeshi Sweater Factory,

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Evidence weight

0.50

Balanced mode · F 0.40 / M 0.15 / V 0.05 / R 0.40

F · citation impact0.50 × 0.4 = 0.20
M · momentum0.50 × 0.15 = 0.07
V · venue signal0.50 × 0.05 = 0.03
R · text relevance †0.50 × 0.4 = 0.20

† Text relevance is estimated at 0.50 on the detail page — for your query’s actual relevance score, open this paper from a search result.