IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/jeborg/v224y2024icp248-265.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Effort, talent, and inequality in a small open economy

Author

Listed:
  • Dinopoulos, Elias
  • Heins, Gunnar
  • Tsoulouhas, Theofanis

Abstract

We develop a general equilibrium model of a small open economy with performance-pay worker compensation and occupational choice. We analytically and numerically examine the distributional effects of entrepreneurial talent and performance-pay contracts. Risk-neutral, more talented individuals become entrepreneurs, inducing workers to exert effort through incentive contracts. Entrepreneurial talent and worker effort significantly influence income inequality through complex general equilibrium channels. Economies with higher tariffs, more entrepreneurs, less skilled or more heterogeneous workers, and economies without worker effort, display higher income inequality measured by the top one percent income share and the Gini Coefficient.

Suggested Citation

  • Dinopoulos, Elias & Heins, Gunnar & Tsoulouhas, Theofanis, 2024. "Effort, talent, and inequality in a small open economy," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 224(C), pages 248-265.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:jeborg:v:224:y:2024:i:c:p:248-265
    DOI: 10.1016/j.jebo.2024.05.022
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0167268124002051
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.jebo.2024.05.022?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Xavier Gabaix & Augustin Landier, 2008. "Why has CEO Pay Increased So Much?," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 123(1), pages 49-100.
    2. Thomas Lemieux & W. Bentley MacLeod & Daniel Parent, 2009. "Performance Pay and Wage Inequality," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 124(1), pages 1-49.
    3. Brent Neiman, 2014. "The Global Decline of the Labor Share," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 129(1), pages 61-103.
    4. Elias Dinopoulos & Bulent Unel, 2017. "Managerial capital, occupational choice and inequality in a global economy," Canadian Journal of Economics, Canadian Economics Association, vol. 50(2), pages 365-397, May.
    5. Charles I. Jones, 2015. "Pareto and Piketty: The Macroeconomics of Top Income and Wealth Inequality," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 29(1), pages 29-46, Winter.
    6. Edward P. Lazear & Kathryn L. Shaw & Christopher T. Stanton, 2015. "The Value of Bosses," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 33(4), pages 823-861.
    7. Green, Jerry R & Stokey, Nancy L, 1983. "A Comparison of Tournaments and Contracts," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 91(3), pages 349-364, June.
    8. Thomas Piketty & Emmanuel Saez & Gabriel Zucman, 2019. "Simplified Distributional National Accounts," AEA Papers and Proceedings, American Economic Association, vol. 109, pages 289-295, May.
    9. Unel Bulent, 2015. "Human Capital Formation and International Trade," The B.E. Journal of Economic Analysis & Policy, De Gruyter, vol. 15(3), pages 1067-1092, July.
    10. Monte, Ferdinando, 2011. "Skill bias, trade, and wage dispersion," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 83(2), pages 202-218, March.
    11. Elias Dinopoulos & Theofanis Tsoulouhas, 2016. "Performance Pay and Offshoring," Journal of Economics & Management Strategy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 25(2), pages 334-369, April.
    12. Harald Uhlig, 1996. "A law of large numbers for large economies (*)," Economic Theory, Springer;Society for the Advancement of Economic Theory (SAET), vol. 8(1), pages 41-50.
    13. Alex Edmans & Xavier Gabaix, 2016. "Executive Compensation: A Modern Primer," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 54(4), pages 1232-1287, December.
    14. Dinopoulos, Elias & Unel, Bulent, 2015. "Entrepreneurs, jobs, and trade," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 79(C), pages 93-112.
    15. Charles I. Jones, 2022. "Taxing Top Incomes in a World of Ideas," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 130(9), pages 2227-2274.
    16. Elhanan Helpman & Oleg Itskhoki & Stephen Redding, 2010. "Inequality and Unemployment in a Global Economy," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 78(4), pages 1239-1283, July.
    17. Robert E. Lucas Jr., 1978. "On the Size Distribution of Business Firms," Bell Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 9(2), pages 508-523, Autumn.
    18. Thomas Chaney, 2008. "Distorted Gravity: The Intensive and Extensive Margins of International Trade," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 98(4), pages 1707-1721, September.
    19. Pablo D Fajgelbaum & Pinelopi K Goldberg & Patrick J Kennedy & Amit K Khandelwal, 2020. "The Return to Protectionism," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 135(1), pages 1-55.
    20. Marinakis, Kosmas & Tsoulouhas, Theofanis, 2013. "Are tournaments optimal over piece rates under limited liability for the principal?," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 31(3), pages 223-237.
    21. Neus Herranz & Stefan Krasa & Anne P. Villamil, 2015. "Entrepreneurs, Risk Aversion, and Dynamic Firms," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 123(5), pages 1133-1176.
    22. Kosmas Marinakis & Theofanis Tsoulouhas, 2012. "A comparison of cardinal tournaments and piece rate contracts with liquidity constrained agents," Journal of Economics, Springer, vol. 105(2), pages 161-190, March.
    23. Peter Diamond & Emmanuel Saez, 2011. "The Case for a Progressive Tax: From Basic Research to Policy Recommendations," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 25(4), pages 165-190, Fall.
    24. Thomas Piketty & Emmanuel Saez, 2003. "Income Inequality in the United States, 1913–1998," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 118(1), pages 1-41.
    25. Kihlstrom, Richard E & Laffont, Jean-Jacques, 1979. "A General Equilibrium Entrepreneurial Theory of Firm Formation Based on Risk Aversion," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 87(4), pages 719-748, August.
    26. Pupato, Germán, 2017. "Performance pay, trade and inequality," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 172(C), pages 478-504.
    27. Gerald Auten & David Splinter, 2019. "Top 1 Percent Income Shares: Comparing Estimates Using Tax Data," AEA Papers and Proceedings, American Economic Association, vol. 109, pages 307-311, May.
    28. repec:hal:spmain:info:hdl:2441/6apm7lruv088iagm4rv2c33jtg is not listed on IDEAS
    29. Edward P. Lazear, 2018. "Compensation and Incentives in the Workplace," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 32(3), pages 195-214, Summer.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Elias Dinopoulos & Bulent Unel, 2017. "Managerial capital, occupational choice and inequality in a global economy," Canadian Journal of Economics, Canadian Economics Association, vol. 50(2), pages 365-397, May.
    2. Dinopoulos, Elias & Unel, Bulent, 2015. "Entrepreneurs, jobs, and trade," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 79(C), pages 93-112.
    3. Monte, Ferdinando, 2011. "Skill bias, trade, and wage dispersion," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 83(2), pages 202-218, March.
    4. Ferey, Antoine & Haufler, Andreas & Perroni, Carlo, 2023. "Incentives, globalization, and redistribution," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 224(C).
    5. Bulent Unel, 2019. "A model of occupational choice, offshoring and immigration," Review of International Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 27(1), pages 267-289, February.
    6. Unel, Bulent, 2018. "Offshoring and unemployment in a credit-constrained economy," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 111(C), pages 21-33.
    7. Ma, Lin & Ruzic, Dimitrije, 2020. "Globalization and top income shares," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 125(C).
    8. Mingzhi Xu, 2020. "Globalization, the skill premium, and income distribution: the role of selection into entrepreneurship," Review of World Economics (Weltwirtschaftliches Archiv), Springer;Institut für Weltwirtschaft (Kiel Institute for the World Economy), vol. 156(3), pages 633-668, August.
    9. Hartmut Egger & Udo Kreickemeier, 2017. "Fairness, Trade, and Inequality," World Scientific Book Chapters, in: International Trade and Labor Markets Welfare, Inequality and Unemployment, chapter 12, pages 339-380, World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd..
    10. Dan Cao & Wenlan Luo, 2017. "Persistent Heterogeneous Returns and Top End Wealth Inequality," Review of Economic Dynamics, Elsevier for the Society for Economic Dynamics, vol. 26, pages 301-326, October.
    11. Yanhui Wu, 2011. "Managerial Incentives and Compensation in a Global Market," CEP Discussion Papers dp1066, Centre for Economic Performance, LSE.
    12. Laurence Ales & Antonio Andres Bellofatto & Jessie Jiaxu Wang, 2017. "Taxing Atlas: Executive Compensation, Firm Size and Their Impact on Optimal Top Income Tax Rates," Review of Economic Dynamics, Elsevier for the Society for Economic Dynamics, vol. 26, pages 62-90, October.
    13. Alex Edmans & Xavier Gabaix, 2016. "Executive Compensation: A Modern Primer," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 54(4), pages 1232-1287, December.
    14. Advani, Arun & Koenig, Felix & Pessina, Lorenzo & Summers, Andy, 2020. "Importing Inequality: Immigration and the Top 1 Percent," IZA Discussion Papers 13731, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    15. Xulia González & Rosa Loveira & Consuelo Pazó, 2022. "Performance pay, firm size and export market participation: Evidence from matched employer–employee data," LABOUR, CEIS, vol. 36(3), pages 342-366, September.
    16. Nicholas Bloom & Scott W. Ohlmacher & Cristina J. Tello-Trillo & Melanie Wallskog, 2021. "Pay, Productivity and Management," NBER Working Papers 29377, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    17. Wu, Yanhui, 2011. "A simple theory of managerial talent, pay contracts and wage distribution," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 121904, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    18. Wang, Tianxi & Wright, Greg C, 2014. "Techonolgical Change and the Income Distribution: Theory and Some Evidence," Economics Discussion Papers 12226, University of Essex, Department of Economics.
    19. Kohl, Miriam, 2020. "Redistribution, selection, and trade," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 122(C).
    20. Elias Dinopoulos & Bulent Unel, 2014. "Firm Productivity, Occupational Choice, and Inequality in a Global Economy (revised March 2015)," Departmental Working Papers 2014-04, Department of Economics, Louisiana State University.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Inequality; Top incomes; Tariffs; Entrepreneurs; Talent; Effort; Performance pay; Labor contracts; Incentives;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • F16 - International Economics - - Trade - - - Trade and Labor Market Interactions
    • F22 - International Economics - - International Factor Movements and International Business - - - International Migration
    • J33 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Wages, Compensation, and Labor Costs - - - Compensation Packages; Payment Methods
    • J41 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Particular Labor Markets - - - Labor Contracts

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:jeborg:v:224:y:2024:i:c:p:248-265. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/jebo .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.