We study differences in markups earned by Bangladeshi garment exporters across buyers with different sourcing strategies and make three contributions. First, we distinguish buyers with a relational versus a spot sourcing strategy and show that a buyer’s sourcing strategy is correlated across products and origins. Buyer fixed effects explain most of the variation in sourcing strategies, suggesting that these depend on organizational capabilities. Second, we use novel data that match quantities and prices of the two main variable inputs in the production of garments (fabric and labor on sewing lines) to specific export orders. We derive conditions under which these data allow measurement of within exporter–product–time differences in markups across orders produced for different buyers. Third, we show that exporters earn higher markups on otherwise identical orders produced for relational, as opposed to spot, buyers. A sourcing model with imperfect contract enforcement, idiosyncratic shocks to exporters, and buyers that adopt different sourcing strategies trading off higher prices and reliable supply rationalizes this and other observed facts in the industry. We discuss alternative explanations and policy implications.

中文翻译：

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孟加拉国服装买家的采购策略和供应商的加价

我们研究了孟加拉国服装出口商在采用不同采购策略的买家中获得的加价差异，并做出了三点贡献。首先，我们区分买家的关系采购策略和现货采购策略，并表明买家的采购策略与产品和原产地相关。买方固定效应解释了采购策略的大部分变化，表明这些变化取决于组织能力。其次，我们使用新颖的数据将服装生产中两个主要变量投入（缝纫线上的面料和劳动力）的数量和价格与特定的出口订单相匹配。我们得出了一些条件，在这些条件下，这些数据可以衡量为不同买家生产的订单中出口商-产品-时间之间的加价差异。第三，我们发现，出口商在为关系买家（而不是现货买家）生产的其他相同订单上获得更高的加价。合同执行不完善的采购模式，对出口商和采取不同采购策略的买家造成特殊冲击，以更高的价格和可靠的供应进行权衡，使这一点和行业中其他观察到的事实合理化。我们讨论替代解释和政策影响。