IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/unu/wpaper/wp-2021-36.html

Labour turnover and workers' well-being in the Ethiopian manufacturing industry

Author

Listed:
  • Sandra Kristine Halvorsen

Abstract

Manufacturing industry expansion is a central part of Ethiopia's growth and transformation agenda due to its potential for accelerated economic development and large-scale job creation, in particular for women. However, the industry is experiencing extremely high labour turnover rates, which is hampering the prospects of a successful industrialization of the country. Understanding the reasons for the high turnover may give important insights into the industry workings and how factory employment affects women's economic empowerment and well-being.

Suggested Citation

  • Sandra Kristine Halvorsen, 2021. "Labour turnover and workers' well-being in the Ethiopian manufacturing industry," WIDER Working Paper Series wp-2021-36, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    • Handle: RePEc:unu:wpaper:wp-2021-36
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.wider.unu.edu/sites/default/files/Publications/Working-paper/PDF/wp2021-36-labour-turnover-workers-well-being-manufacturing-industry-Ethiopia.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Benjamin Powell & David Skarbek, 2006. "Sweatshops and Third World Living Standards: Are the Jobs Worth the Sweat?," Journal of Labor Research, Transaction Publishers, vol. 27(2), pages 263-274, April.
    2. Naila Kabeer, 1997. "Women, Wages and Intra‐household Power Relations in Urban Bangladesh," Development and Change, International Institute of Social Studies, vol. 28(2), pages 261-302, April.
    3. Tefera,Girum Abebe & Buehren,Niklas & Goldstein,Markus P., 2020. "Short-Run Welfare Impacts of Factory Jobs : Experimental Evidence from Ethiopia," Policy Research Working Paper Series 9325, The World Bank.
    4. Goedele Van den Broeck & Miet Maertens, 2015. "Female Employment Reduces Fertility in Rural Senegal," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 10(3), pages 1-15, March.
    5. Girum Abebe & A Stefano Caria & Marcel Fafchamps & Paolo Falco & Simon Franklin & Simon Quinn, 2021. "Anonymity or Distance? Job Search and Labour Market Exclusion in a Growing African City," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 88(3), pages 1279-1310.
    6. repec:wbk:wbpubs:11843 is not listed on IDEAS
    7. Zwolinski, Matt, 2007. "Sweatshops, Choice, and Exploitation," Business Ethics Quarterly, Cambridge University Press, vol. 17(4), pages 689-727, October.
    8. repec:wbk:wbpubs:4391 is not listed on IDEAS
    9. Simon Franklin, 2018. "Location, Search Costs and Youth Unemployment: Experimental Evidence from Transport Subsidies," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 128(614), pages 2353-2379, September.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Debebe, Sisay & Bessie, Semeneh & Mehare, Abule & Tazeze, Aemro, 2023. "Private Sector Development in Ethiopia," Ethiopian Journal of Economics, Ethiopian Economics Association, vol. 32(01), April.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Banerjee, Abhijit V. & Chiplunkar, Gaurav, 2024. "How important are matching frictions in the labor market? Experimental & non-experimental evidence from a large Indian firm," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 171(C).
    2. Chakravorty, Bhaskar & Arulampalam, Wiji & Bhatiya, Apurav Yash & Imbert, Clément & Rathelot, Roland, 2024. "Can information about jobs improve the effectiveness of vocational training? Experimental evidence from India," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 169(C).
    3. A Stefano Caria & Grant Gordon & Maximilian Kasy & Simon Quinn & Soha Osman Shami & Alexander Teytelboym, 2024. "An Adaptive Targeted Field Experiment: Job Search Assistance for Refugees in Jordan," Journal of the European Economic Association, European Economic Association, vol. 22(2), pages 781-836.
    4. Clement Imbert & Marlon Seror & Yifan Zhang & Yanos Zylberberg, 2022. "Migrants and Firms: Evidence from China," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 112(6), pages 1885-1914, June.
    5. Brough, Rebecca & Freedman, Matthew & Phillips, David C., 2022. "Experimental evidence on the effects of means-tested public transportation subsidies on travel behavior," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 96(C).
    6. Girum Abebe & A Stefano Caria & Marcel Fafchamps & Paolo Falco & Simon Franklin & Simon Quinn & Forhad Shilpi, 2025. "Matching Frictions and Distorted Beliefs: Evidence from a Job Fair Experiment," The Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 135(671), pages 2089-2121.
    7. Girum Abebe & Marcel Fafchamps & Michael Koelle & Simon Quinn, 2019. "Learning Management Through Matching: A Field Experiment Using Mechanism Design," CSAE Working Paper Series 2019-11, Centre for the Study of African Economies, University of Oxford.
    8. Poschke, Markus, 2025. "Wage employment, unemployment and self-employment across countries," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 149(C).
    9. Kevin Donovan & Jianyu Lu & Todd Schoellman, 2018. "Labor Market Flows and Development," 2018 Meeting Papers 976, Society for Economic Dynamics.
    10. Benjamin Powell & Matt Zwolinski, 2012. "The Ethical and Economic Case Against Sweatshop Labor: A Critical Assessment," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 107(4), pages 449-472, June.
    11. Bhatiya, Apurav Yash & Chakravorty, Bhaskar & Imbert, Clément & Rathelot, Roland, 2026. "How do beliefs and preferences over jobs affect enrollment in vocational training: Experimental evidence from India," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 184(C).
    12. Sam Jones & Kunal Sen, 2022. "Labour market effects of digital matching platforms: Experimental evidence from sub-Saharan Africa," WIDER Working Paper Series wp-2022-69, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    13. J R Clark & Benjamin Powell, 2013. "Sweatshop Working Conditions and Employee Welfare: Say It Ain’t Sew," Comparative Economic Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Association for Comparative Economic Studies, vol. 55(2), pages 343-357, June.
    14. Guzman, Luis A. & Ochoa, Jorge Luis & Cardona, Santiago Gómez & Sarmiento-Barbieri, Ignacio, 2025. "Pro-poor transport subsidies: More user welfare and faster travel," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 195(C).
    15. Girsberger, Esther Mirjam & Meango, Romuald, 2022. "The Puzzle of Educated Unemployment in West Africa," IZA Discussion Papers 15721, IZA Network @ LISER.
    16. Maria Balgova & Tsegay Tekleselassie & Lukas Hensel & Marc Witte, 2025. "Wage information and applicant selection," Bank of England Staff Working Paper series 1148, Bank of England.
    17. András Miklós, 2019. "Exploiting Injustice in Mutually Beneficial Market Exchange: The Case of Sweatshop Labor," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 156(1), pages 59-69, April.
    18. Simon Franklin & Clément Imbert & Girum Abebe & Carolina Mejia-Mantilla, 2024. "Urban Public Works in Spatial Equilibrium: Experimental Evidence from Ethiopia," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 114(5), pages 1382-1414, May.
    19. Daniel Halim & Michael B. O’Sullivan & Abhilasha Sahay, 2023. "Increasing Female Labor Force Participation," World Bank Publications - Reports 39435, The World Bank Group.
    20. Joshua Dean & Gabriel Kreindler & Oluchi Mbonu, 2026. "The Effect of Exposure: Evidence from Spatial Choices in Nairobi," Working Papers 2026-24, Becker Friedman Institute for Research In Economics.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:unu:wpaper:wp-2021-36. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Siméon Rapin (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/widerfi.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.