Unfair Pay and Health

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Falk, Armin; Kosse, Fabian; Menrath, Ingo; Verde, Pablo E.; Siegrist, Johannes
• 署名单位: University of Bonn; University of Bonn; University of Lubeck; Heinrich Heine University Dusseldorf; Heinrich Heine University Dusseldorf
• 刊物名称: MANAGEMENT SCIENCE
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0025-1909
• DOI: 10.1287/mnsc.2016.2630
• 发表日期: 2018
• 页码: 1477-1488
• 关键词: fairness; social preferences; INEQUALITY; Heart rate variability; HEALTH; experiments; SOEP

摘要

This paper investigates physiological responses to perceptions of unfair pay. We use an integrated approach that exploits complementarities between controlled laboratory and representative panel data. In a simple principal-agent experiment, agents produce revenue by working on a tedious task. Principals decide how this revenue is allocated between themselves and their agents. Throughout the experiment we record agents' heart rate variability, which is an indicator of stress-related impaired cardiac autonomic control and which has been shown to predict coronary heart disease in the long run. Our findings establish a link between unfair payment and heart rate variability. Building on these findings, we further test for potential adverse health effects of unfair pay using observational data from a large representative panel data set. Complementary to our experimental findings we show a strong and significant negative association between unfair pay and health outcomes, in particular cardiovascular health.