Working Conditions and Product Quality: Evidence from Carpet Industry in Pakistan, India, and Nepal

Abstract

[Excerpt] This study considers the relationship between product quality and working conditions in the handmade, export-oriented carpet industry in India, Nepal, and Pakistan. By focusing on a specific sector, we directly observe detailed, meaningful measures of product quality that are rare in the existing literature. Our focus on the Indian subcontinent is driven by an unusual dataset with these better quality measures and detailed data describing working conditions.