Redacted Identities in Shipment Records: Evidence from Forced Labor Scrutiny in Supply Chains

Abstract

US Customs and Border Protection allows firms to request redaction of their own (and their suppliers') identifying information in transaction-level shipment records. We find that about 16% of shipment records from 2013 through 2023 have redacted identities, with significant variation across time, origin regions, and other shipment characteristics. Along with examining proprietary costs as a motive for firms to redact identities, we focus on an important but understudied force: supply chain scrutiny costs related to forced labor risks. Consistent with such costs, shipments from countries with forced labor vulnerabilities and weak government responses to forced labor are more likely to have redacted identities. We then exploit a series of events related to forced labor allegations in international cotton and apparel production that intensified supply chain scrutiny related to forced labor risks. Using a difference-in-difference-in-differences design, we find an increase in redactions for affected cotton and apparel shipments after these events. Overall, our evidence suggests that importers redact identities from shipment records in the presence of supply chain scrutiny costs introduced by public and regulatory attention to corporate social responsibility.

Keywords: disclosure, redactions, supply chains, forced labor

JEL Classification: M41, M48, F14, M14, J80, G38