Lights On: How Transparency Increases Compliance in Cambodian Global Value Chains

This article evaluates the implementation of a transparency policy in garment factories in Cambodia through the Better Factories Cambodia program. Using a difference-in-difference approach that is often applied to control for endogeneity, the author finds that compliance improved following the implementation of the transparency policy. Compliance increased in a group of 21 critical compliance areas that represent fundamental worker rights relative to relevant comparison groups. Compliance among the least-compliant factories, however, did not increase relative to other factories, possibly reflecting limited access to resources.