Do Factory Managers know what Workers Want? Manager-Worker Information Asymmetries and Pareto Optimal Working Conditions

This paper analyzes manager and worker survey data from Better Work Vietnam Monitoring and Evaluation collected between 2010 to 2012

Abstract

Analyzing manager and worker survey data from Better Work Vietnam Monitoring and Evaluation collected between January 2010 and August 2012, working conditions are found to have a significant positive impact on global life assessment and measures of depression and traumatic stress. The conjecture that factory managers may not be offering a cost-minimizing configuration of compensation and workplace amenities is then tested. There exists significant deviations of manager perceptions of working conditions from those of workers and these deviations significantly impact a worker’s perceptions of wellbeing and indicators of mental health. Such deviations may lead the factory manager to under-provide certain workplace amenities relative to the cost-minimizing configuration.

Citation

Domat, G.; Adler, P.; Dehejia, R.; Brown, D.; Robertson, R. Do Factory Managers know what Workers Want? Manager-Worker Information Asymmetries and Pareto Optimal Working Conditions. The World Bank, Washington DC, USA (2013) ii + 38 pp.

Do Factory Managers know what Workers Want? Manager-Worker Information Asymmetries and Pareto Optimal Working Conditions (PDF, 1385KB)

Updates to this page

Published 1 January 2013