On the Economic Architecture of the Workplace: Repercussions of Social Comparisons among Heterogeneous Workers

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Stark, Oded; Hyll, Walter
• 署名单位: University of Bonn; University of Klagenfurt; University of Vienna; University of Warsaw; Warsaw School of Economics; University of Klagenfurt
• 刊物名称: JOURNAL OF LABOR ECONOMICS
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0734-306X
• DOI: 10.1086/659104
• 发表日期: 2011
• 页码: 349-375
• 关键词: relative deprivation; individual deprivation; labor contracts; migration; incentives; tournaments; PRODUCTIVITY; segregation; preferences

摘要

We analyze the impact on a firm's profits and optimal wage rates, and on the distribution of workers' earnings, when workers compare their earnings with those of coworkers. We consider a low-productivity worker who receives lower wage earnings than a high-productivity worker. When the low-productivity worker derives (dis)utility not only from his own effort but also from comparing his earnings with those of the high-productivity worker, his response to the sensing of relative deprivation is to increase the optimal level of effort. Consequently, the firm's profits are higher, its wage rates remain unchanged, and the distribution of earnings is compressed.