Garments Sector Of Bangladesh Research Articles

Employment Booms and Infant Health: Evidence from the Ready-Made Garment Sector in Bangladesh

Employment Booms and Infant Health: Evidence from the Ready-Made Garment Sector in Bangladesh

Estimation of an ARDL (m, p, q, r, s) Model to Determine the Long-run Effects of World Income, Relative Price, Real Exchange Rate and Employment on Export Demand for the Garment Sector of Bangladesh

In this paper, an ARDL (m p, q, r, s, s) log-linear export demand function is estimated to find the long-run impacts of world income, relative price, real exchange rate, and employment on exports of the garment sector of Bangladesh using modern econometric techniques based on time series data from 1979-2020. Long-run significant relationships among exports, relative price, real exchange rate, world income and employment are found. The VEC model's estimated results indicate short-run bidirectional causalities between different pairs of variables. The long-run causalities are found while exports and employment are the endogenous variables. The estimated results indicate that both long-run and short-run exports are influenced positively and significantly by world income. Relative price, real exchange rate and employment carry negative signs for both long-run and short-run in which the effects of relative price and real exchange rate are statistically significant in the long run which implies that a 1% decrease in relative price, exports will increase by 1.256%. It is found that the coefficient of ECM(-1) is -0.9705 which is statistically significant at any significance level, suggesting that when the export value is above its equilibrium level, it will adjust about 97.05% within the first year. The full convergence process to reach the equilibrium level takes more than a year. Thus, this study will help the economists, policymakers and stakeholders of the garment sector of Bangladesh to predict the dynamics of export demand due to changes in world income level, relative price, real exchange rate and employment.

Impact of Quota Withdrawn on the Textile and Clothing Industry of Bangladesh

The textile and clothing industry plays a significant role in the economy of Bangladesh. It acts as a key player in the progress of the country. At present, the export performance of the readymade garment sector is more than 80% of total exports and hence makes up about 12% of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in Bangladesh. Thus, the country’s development largely depends on this sector which is considered the backbone of Bangladesh. As the quota system under the Multi-Fiber Agreement (MFA) phase greatly impacted the development process of the readymade garment sector in Bangladesh, many researchers disputed that after the abolition of the quota system, the growth of this sector might be hampered. Therefore, this study aims to find out the impact of quota withdrawal on the readymade garment (RMG) sector and, thereby, the roles of this sector to the economy of Bangladesh. For this purpose, the research has covered a period of twenty years as sample size, where ten years has been considered as the pre-MFA period and ten years as the post-MFA period. Being a quantitative study, comparative statements and descriptive statistics techniques have been used to determine the impact of quota withdrawal on the export performance of Bangladesh's textile and clothing sector. The evidence shows a smooth upward trend of textile and clothing exports towards the ten major countries in the world following the post-MFA period, and Bangladesh is registered as a significant export growth country following the withdrawal of MFA. Consequently, the arguments about the RMG sector concerning the textile and clothing industry that Bangladesh might not be able to compete in the global market during post-MFA periods proved wrong; thereby, this sector’s contribution to the economy is increasing progressively.

Estimation of a Logistic Regression Model to Determine the Effects of the Factors Associated with the Likelihood of Skilled Workers in the Garment Sector of Bangladesh

This study attempts to estimate the logistic regression model to find the factors associated with the likelihood of skilled workers in the garment sector of Bangladesh. The study is based on primary data. From the maximum likelihood estimates of the logistic model, it is found that the variables, years of education, years of experience, wage rate, grade, and working years at the present company have significant positive effects on the logit of the outcome variable Y, but the variable age of the companies has a significant negative effect. From the estimated odd ratios, it can be said that the male group is 3.0695 times more likely than the female group to be a skilled worker, which is significant at a 10% level; a group of rural workers is 10.3727 times more likely than the urban group in favour of skilled workers, which is significant at a 15% level; a group of workers have a training program degree is 38.5552 times more likely in favour of skilled workers, than a group of workers who have not, which is statistically significant at any significance level. The estimated results of squared correlation between Y and , pseudo-R2, Mcfadden’s , Maddala’s , and Count-R2 support that the model fits the data very well. Based on the findings, different policies are formulated for the sustainable development of Bangladesh's garment sector.

PRODUCTION FUNCTION FOR MEASURING RETURNS TO SCALE IN THE GARMENT SECTOR: A CASE STUDY OF BANGLADESH

This paper empirically examines whether the production function of the garment sector of Bangladesh is operating under increasing returns to scale. The Cobb-Douglas production function is estimated using the advanced level of econometric techniques based on primary data. GLS estimates indicate that the productivity of labor force is 22.17% and the productivity of capital investment is 61.02%, statistically significant at any significance level. Thus, the production function of the garment sector of Bangladesh is operating under decreasing return to scale. From the GLS estimate of R2 , it is clear that about 99.97% of the total variation of the dependent variable output is explained by the fitted regression equation. Thus, the model fits the data very well. The diagnostic test results show that there are no problems of autocorrelation, heteroscedasticity, autoregressive conditional heteroscedasticity and normality of the random error terms. The test results also confirm that the model is correctly specified. It is also found that the average marginal productivity of labor force is 0.0236 and the average marginal productivity of capital investment is 0.5222 in the garment sector of Bangladesh. Since the marginal productivity of labor force is smaller than the capital investment, it can be said that these factories cannot reduce production costs by shifting resources from capital intensive techniques to labor intensive techniques. As a result, this sector cannot generate additional employment opportunities, which is not a good sign. The CUSUM and CUSUMSQ tests results confirm that the preferred production function of the garment sector of Bangladesh can be used for policy decision-making purposes.

IR 4.0 Readiness of Apparel Industry in Bangladesh

Innovation and technological advancement are crucial for the apparel industry, particularly in manufacturing, made-to-order items, and customer requirements. This industry has become one of the most critical aspects of Bangladesh's industrialization process. However, businesses now strategically drive a series of changes, both from an organizational productivity perspective and a technologically supportive one. Industry 4.0 has significant potential to swap the business and manufacturing processes. Although perceptible advancement has been made in the practice of Industry 4.0 technologies and innovation in the manufacturing industries in industrialized countries, there is hesitation about the readiness of competitive businesses and manufacturing industries in developing countries like Bangladesh to adopt Industry 4.0. This study investigates the Bangladeshi apparel Industry's preparedness to implement Industry 4.0. A mixed-methods strategy has been implemented to evaluate the Bangladesh garment sector's readiness. The quantitative information was gathered through an online survey backed by a questionnaire instrument and quantitative methods of the Impulse Foundation of the Mechanical Engineering Industry Association (Verband Deutscher Maschinen- und Anlagenbau-VDMA). Furthermore, the qualitative data was taken through key informant interviews (KIIs). This exploratory research focused on how companies use technological tools and methodologies and how prepared to adopt the massive changes brought forward by IR 4.0. Based on this study's findings, apparel companies should use technologies such as ERP, Big Data, Cloud, M2M Communication to boost Bangladesh's global competitiveness. In addition, respondents believed that digital transformation could create a smart factory to optimize the manufacturing system, which has a very substantial impact on industry 4.0. Moreover, this exploratory study revealed that Bangladesh's garment companies face significant difficulties in IR 4.0 strategy design and equipment organization to meet IR 4.0 expectations. It is also revealed in this research that skills related to Industry 4.0 exist in hands in Bangladesh. Therefore, further research is needed to discover more features of Industry 4.0 adoption and skilled employee prerequisites.

Occupational stress and health risk of employees working in the garments sector of Bangladesh: An empirical study.

The present study was conducted with a view to examining the impact of occupational stress on employees' health risk. A total number of 350 garment employees (114 supervisors and 236 workers) were selected from 25 readymade garment factories of Dhaka, Narayanganj, and Gazipur industrial areas of Bangladesh on a random sampling basis. Occupational stress was estimated using an ERIs modified questionnaire; when self-reported health problems, work related information and socio-demographic information were obtained using face-to-face interviews using a pre-formed questionnaire. The survey was conducted for 2 years from January 2020 to December 2021 in Dhaka, Narayanganj and Gazipur districts where most of the garment industries in Bangladesh are located. All data were processed by using Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) and Decision Analyst Stats, Version 2.0. For analyzing data, suitable statistical tools such as two-way ANOVA, z-test, chi-square test, Pearson's product-moment correlation, stepwise multiple regressions, and descriptive statistics were used. The results of the present study reveal that the occupational stress had a significant positive influence on health risk. The findings also reveal that both the male and female employees perceived garment job highly stressful and risky for their health causes many dies and sickness, but it was higher among the female employees than their counterparts. Study suggests that due to major illness and diseases garments' employees are lacks of sound health that have to consider remedying for reducing occupational stress and health risk.

Impacts of COVID-19 on the Garment Sector of Bangladesh

In this study, the principal purpose has been made to investigate the impacts of COVID-19 outbreak on the garment sector of Bangladesh including Bangladesh economy using the modern econometric techniques. For this study, the time series variables GDP, total export values (TEX), sales revenue of the garment sector (REVGS), employment in the garment sector (EMP), remittance inflows (REM) and unemployment rate (UNR) of Bangladesh are used in order to find the impacts of COVID-19 outbreak. In this paper, the impacts of COVID-19 outbreak are predicted using the Holt-Winters’ seasonal additive method for all variables individually for the years 2020 and 2021 and then for each and every variable the future values are forecasted. From the predicted results it is found that the loss of GDP, TEX, REVGS, and REM are $31,677.475 million, $6771.5296 million, $6854.089 million and $3941.4486 million in the year 2020 and in the year 2021 it will be $13,544.415 million, $3044.7328 million, $2026.187 million, and $934.513 million respectively for the country wide lockdown due to COVID-19 outbreak. In terms of percentage, the loss of these variables is 13.973%, 13.9726%, 21.789% and 21.650% in the year 2020 and 6.945%, 7.303%, 6.395% and 5.826% in the year 2021 respectively. From the forecasted values the declining trend is found for the variable sales revenue of the garment sector (REVGS) and will be continued for a long period of time. The long-lasting declining trend of REVGS is a red alarming for the garment sector as well as for the Bangladesh economy. Therefore all the stakeholders including BGMEA, BKMEA, and Bangladesh government have to take necessary steps from now to overcome the problem. From the predicted values it is found that in the garment sector the growths of employment are negative by -1.442% and -10.406% in the years 2020 and 2021 respectively. During the period of COVID-19 more than 348 garment factories have shut-down and 0.4 million garment workers lost their jobs. It is found that unemployment rate is upswing by 58.234% in the year 2020 and then will fall back by 18.72% in the year 2021, but from 2022 again increases returning to moderate levels with an increasing rate of 2.47% and will be continued for a long period of time due to COVID-19 outbreak. The long-lasting increases in unemployment rate will cause adverse effects on socio-economic conditions including the livelihood of the marginal people. During the period of COVID-19, unexpected outcomes such as reported women are being raped and suicide may adversely affect the mental health status of the garment female workers for future. Thus from the predicted values, the following policies should be implemented to tackle the problem of sales revenue, to improve the employment condition in garment sector and also to improve unemployment conditions in Bangladesh. The garment sector should develop and maintain good relationships with the international buyers and related stakeholders and have to negotiate with them regarding the price of the products. Price reduction policy with maintaining the quality of the products should be implemented for which the global demand will be increased as a result sales revenue of the garment sector will be increased. Emphasize should be given to provide tax benefits, to advance livelihoods programming for vulnerable workers, to formalize a centralized government database for the garment sector, to expand social protection programs for all garment workers, including unemployment benefits and housing and to rebuild trust between buyers, employers and workers. Monetary motivation and minimum risk premium policy should be introduced for which the garment workers can work with full enthusiasm. Collaboration between government and garment sector including other sectors should be developed to keep people employed and train them. Well-designed database can be created for matching job seekers and employers. Upskilling or reskilling the individual in conformance with the need of future driven skill trend. Enhancing digital literacy that will help the workers to find job in rapidly changing labor market. Entrepreneurs should be encouraged and different stimulus packages should be allocated and emphasize should be given for proper management of these packages so that there will be no scope of wastage money, as a result money can be used for right purposes. These policies will play significant roles for future development of the garment sector as well as for Bangladesh economy.

Worker Satisfaction in Health, Hygiene and Safety Measures Undertaken by the Readymade Garments Industry of Bangladesh: A Case Study on Gazipur

Purpose: The main purpose of the study is to explore the effects of health, hygiene and safety measures on worker satisfaction in readymade garments sector in Gazipur district of Bangladesh. Methodology: Based on review of literatures and collection of 260 usable responses the study is conducted by partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) method using Smart PLS 3.0. Findings: The findings of the study have revealed that health and hygiene measures significantly influence workers’ satisfaction towards readymade garments sector in Bangladesh. However, the study results show that safety measures insignificantly influence the workers" satisfaction towards garment Sector in Bangladesh. Practical implications: The study might be useful for garment industry operators in formulating strategies of improving health and Hygiene measures, and safety measures to improve workers' satisfaction in garment sector in Bangladesh. Originality: The study has uniquely presented a case comprising the factors helping devising a strategy for industry professionals through measuring the integrated effects of health, hygiene and safety measures on workers’ satisfaction of readymade garment sector in Bangladesh.

Foreign Direct Investment in the Readymade Garment Sector of Bangladesh: Macro and Distributional Implications

Bangladesh, a labour-abundant country, benefits from foreign direct investment (FDI), as it is considered to be a supplement to domestic investment for this capital-scarce economy. This paper measures the impacts of an FDI increase in the RMG sector on the macroeconomy in Bangladesh and on the welfare of households, which are heterogeneous, especially in income sources, using a general equilibrium framework. Simulation results show that an increase in FDI promotes both output and exports in the RMG sector. However, because of the competition between MNEs and domestic firms, the output of domestic firms would fall slightly. Scrutinizing the welfare effects among household groups, we find that the benefits of FDI-induced growth would affect all household groups unevenly. We also demonstrate that the benefits could be shared equitably among household groups with skill development programmes targeted at the adversely affected household groups.

Exports and Inequality: Evidence from the Highly Concentrated Textile and Garment Sector of Bangladesh

In this study, we investigate the effects of textile and garment (T&G) exports on income inequality in Bangladesh. Focusing on T&G exports alone, which contribute more than 90% of the country’s total exports, we hypothesize that the export sector of a country being concentrated on a single industry widens income inequality. Based on time series data over the period 1991–2015, the autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) bounds testing approach to cointegration indicates that there is a long-run relationship between the variables. It seems that exports from the T&G sector have a statistically significant effect on income inequality in the long run, such that the high concentration of T&G exports contributes to widening income inequality in Bangladesh. This result implies that policies oriented toward export diversification are necessary so that people working in other sectors can also engage in income generating activities from exports. Our results also demonstrate that income inequality rises in the initial stages of economic growth. Then, after reaching a threshold level of growth, income inequality falls. This result confirms the validity of the Kuznets hypothesis in the case of Bangladesh.

Gender wage gaps and worker mobility: Evidence from the garment sector in Bangladesh

Data from 70 large export-oriented garment manufacturers in Bangladesh show that women’s wages are 20 percent lower than men’s and are 8 percent lower even among narrowly-defined production workers. A significant gap remains even after controlling for very precisely measured skills. Longer careers of men in the sector explain around half of the wage gap, with the other half due in roughly equal parts to differences in internal and across-factory promotion rates. Our results are most consistent with broader gender norms, beyond gendered household responsibilities, driving the gap.

Keith Davis’s Human Relations Theory could create Human Relations to reach Sound Industrial Relations (SIRs) in the Garment Sector of Bangladesh

Keith Davis’s Human Relations Theory could create Human Relations to reach Sound Industrial Relations (SIRs) in the Garment Sector of Bangladesh

Trade Performance of the Garments Sector of Bangladesh

Trade Performance of the Garments Sector of Bangladesh

Effects of Human Resource Management Practices on Labor Dispute of Readymade Garment Sector of Bangladesh

Labour dispute is the most important issue the readymade garment (RMG) sector of Bangladesh has been facing at present. Labour dispute (LD) creates lose-lose situation and impairs the interest of both the workers and employers and thereby creates barriers in achieving sustainable development goals (SDGs) by hampering economic development of the country. For achieving SDGs within due times, it is necessary to maintain harmonious industrial relation (HIR) in RMG sector. In a HIR both the employers and workers change their mind set up and builds an environment of mutual understanding and trust. Workers with high motivation and commitment consider the interest of the employers as their own interest and always try to avoid dispute. HIR can be maintained through proper exercise of human resource management (HRM) practices. As LD is high in RMG sector, it is necessary to know to what extent HRM practices are exercised in this sector and whether these practices are responsible for labour dispute or not. To do so a questionnaire survey has been conducted on 384 workers of grade IV to grade VII of four major districts. Five focus group discussions and eight key informant interviews also have been conducted to triangulate the data. The findings indicate that HRM practices are poorly exercised in this sector. Among these practices inadequate wages, irregularity in paying wages, sudden dismissal, misbehavior and using slang language, inadequate scope for negotiation are important.

Leading in the digital age: the perspectives of the readymade garments sector of Bangladesh

The prime objective of the research was to determine how the RMG sector is embracing digitization and its leaders are preparing for the digital age? so we investigated the influence of three variables- use of atomized digital machines, use of smartphones and apps, internet of things and what type of leadership style is needed for digital leadership. The present study used a sample of 50 RMG companies. Further, the variables’ influence on digitization has been assessed through multiple factors leading to digitization by allotment of weightage for each factor. The findings in this paper support two variables; use of automized digital machines and internet of things being significant whereas, the use of smartphones and apps is insignificant. It implies that preparation for leading in the digital age remains limited which require incorporation at all levels. The paper leads to a research question for future researchers that despite being very much important theoretically, why the use of smartphones are non-significant in RMG sector? Limitations of the paper include the data which is specific to Bangladesh RMG industry, therefore it cannot be generalized, further the economic meltdown due to COVID-19 pandemic might have influenced the results. The paper’s prime contribution is based on the assessment of predictor variables and their influence that it makes in providing leadership in the digital age.

Public Perception of Financial Incentives During COVID-19: A Case Study of the Ready-Made Garment Sector in Bangladesh

In the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, researchers are considering resilience factors for global industry to provide public policy experts with field insights. Financial incentives are one tool used to support industry. This article focuses on the ready-made garment sector suggesting there is a relationship between incentives and workers in this industry, specifically when facility owners anticipate incentives from the government. The primary findings are that sector respondents are aware incentives by the government will be provided, that additional support allocations can be used for alternative uses by the owners, and that the sector is recovering by utilizing resilience factors.

Analysis of the Present Condition of Garment Workers’ Rights and Its Protection under Domestic and International Legal Framework: Bangladesh Perspective

Total economy of Bangladesh greatly depends on industrial sectors and the ready-made garment is a vital part of this sector. More than 4 million people are working in this sector and about 5000 garment factories are scattered across the country. Among them about 70 per cent workers are women and they work equally with men from early morning to evening, which often extends to several hours at night, where their paid wages which they actually got are not in a satisfactory level. But we have to admit that, Proper management of labour is an essential matter for the growth of the industrial sector and for that role of labour and industrial laws are of paramount importance. The main object to which the Labour law indicates is obviously to maintain peace in the industrial sector and to meet the vibrancies of problems in the workplace, not only that but also to protect and secure the essential rights of the workmen. But it is a matter to regret that various defects, loopholes and unwanted rules of labour laws are depriving the workers of their legal or basic rights and also indiscriminately been victimized. The main aims of this research are to clarify the rights and other conceptual issues regarding rights of the workers especially who work in the garments sector of Bangladesh in accordance with standard practice, domestic and international legal framework along with the pledge to search the main and top most loopholes of existing labour laws of our country. In this research, we have tried both qualitative and quantitative approach to make it more effective and fruitful. At the end of this research, we will try to discuss some international documents to assure the maximization of rights of the working class as well as to lessen the violation of their fundamental, legal or basic rights in the ready-made garments sector of our country.

Impact of Covid-19 on Garment Sector in Bangladesh

Impact of Covid-19 on Garment Sector in Bangladesh

The Relationship between Action Logics of Business Leaders and CSR Behaviours in the Ready Made Garment Sector of Bangladesh

This study focuses on understanding the inner psychological (intrinsic) motivations that influence local business leaders in adopting CSR behaviours. The inner motivations are hereby considered as the mind-sets of individuals, the human capacity to interpret reality. According to the constructive developmental theories, individuals experience several stages of consciousness development, as a consequence of their deeper understanding of reality, wisdom and ego awareness. More specifically, building upon the Action Logics framework of Rooke and Torbert (2005), it can be considered what type of action logics relate to advanced forms of CSR behaviours. One of the main contributions of this study to the leadership and CSR literature is to describe each action logics as specific intrinsic motivation and clarify empirically the relationship between action logics of local business leaders and different stages of CSR behaviours, in a specific local context. An inductive research strategy is applied. Nine local business leaders participated in this research and triangulation was applied based on in-depth interviews, observations and company reports to determine CSR behaviours and how they are related to action logics. Template analysis was used for coding the findings. The study resulted in four distinctive patterns about the relationships between action logics and CSR behaviours. The study indicates that: (1) Higher action logics are needed to be engaged in more advanced stages of CSR practices; (2) It is at the achiever action logic level when leaders start moving towards advanced stages of CSR behaviours; (3) Lower action logics cannot induce advanced stages of CSR behaviours; (4) Business leaders with higher action logics can still apply practices of the full range of CSR stages. Based on these findings this paper provides recommendations for future research and managerial practice.