All Theses and Dissertations

Degree

Master of Science in Economics

Faculty / School

Faculty of Business Administration (FBA)

Department

Department of Economics

Date of Award

Spring 2020

Advisor

Dr. Heman Das Lohano

Committee Member 1

Dr. Heman Das Lohano, Institute of Business Administration, Karachi

Project Type

Thesis

Access Type

Restricted Access

Pages

vii, 29

Abstract

Occupational respiratory diseases are the third greatest cause of mortality around the world, standing at 17%. In the textile industry, cotton dust has significant effect on workers’ health and lead to respiratory problems including lung disease known as byssinosis. With nearly 40% of industrial labor force employed in the textile industry of Pakistan, and thus it exposes a huge working population with significant health risk. In this pioneering study, we examine the wage-risk trade off to measure compensating wage differential for working in dusty environment. This was a cross-sectional study involving 695 male workers from 20 textile mills of Karachi involved in the weaving process. Results from hedonic wage model confirms the existence of wage differential in all model specification. After controlling for individual and work-related factors, the evidence suggests that workers in the dusty environment are compensated by the market with positive wage premium – 5% of monthly wage due to increased health risk posed by dusty technology. However, this study suggests that wage premium in this textile chain is small. The findings would be useful for policy makers for reducing workplace risk for better occupational health and safety of the largest exporting sector of Pakistan. From policy perspective, there is need to develop guidelines for permissible dust control limits and should be monitored during labor and environmental inspections.

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