IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/quaeco/v48y2008i4p653-672.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Wages, supervision and sharing

Author

Listed:
  • Sessions, John G.

Abstract

Instrumental efficiency wage models predict an inverse relationship between wages and supervision with this relationship being more pronounced amongst firms participating in employee sharing. My theoretical exposition predicts that an increase in remuneration reduces monitoring more in "sharing" than in "non-sharing" firms. I explore these predictions using the 1998 Workplace Employee Relations Survey. My empirical results confirm an inverse relationship between supervision and pay, but the trade-off is only heightened by performance-related pay and employee share ownership schemes. I find that employee share ownership and performance-related pay are more successful in alleviating the need to monitor.

Suggested Citation

  • Sessions, John G., 2008. "Wages, supervision and sharing," The Quarterly Review of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 48(4), pages 653-672, November.
  • Handle: RePEc:eee:quaeco:v:48:y:2008:i:4:p:653-672
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1062-9769(06)00078-0
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    ---><---

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

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Alchian, Armen A & Demsetz, Harold, 1972. "Production , Information Costs, and Economic Organization," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 62(5), pages 777-795, December.
    2. Jensen, Michael C & Meckling, William H, 1979. "Rights and Production Functions: An Application to Labor-managed Firms and Codetermination," The Journal of Business, University of Chicago Press, vol. 52(4), pages 469-506, October.
    3. Leonard, Jonathan S, 1987. "Carrots and Sticks: Pay, Supervision, and Turnover," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 5(4), pages 136-152, October.
    4. repec:bla:econom:v:50:y:1983:i:198:p:175-81 is not listed on IDEAS
    5. Conte, Michael A. & Svejnar, Jan, 1988. "Productivity effects of worker participation in management, profit-sharing, worker ownership of assets and unionization in U.S. firms," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 6(1), pages 139-151, March.
    6. Brunello, Giorgio, 1995. "The Relationship between Supervision and Pay: Evidence from the British New Earnings Survey," Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics, Department of Economics, University of Oxford, vol. 57(3), pages 309-321, August.
    7. Hausman, Jerry A & Taylor, William E, 1981. "Panel Data and Unobservable Individual Effects," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 49(6), pages 1377-1398, November.
    8. Chong-en Bai & Chenggang Xu, 1995. "Does Employee Ownership Improve Incentives for Efforts," Boston College Working Papers in Economics 303., Boston College Department of Economics.
    9. Linda A. Bell & Richard B. Freeman, 1985. "Does a Flexible Industry Wage Structure Increase Employment?: The U.S. Experience," NBER Working Papers 1604, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    10. Bulow, Jeremy I & Summers, Lawrence H, 1986. "A Theory of Dual Labor Markets with Application to Industrial Policy,Discrimination, and Keynesian Unemployment," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 4(3), pages 376-414, July.
    11. Wansbeek, Tom & Kapteyn, Arie, 1989. "Estimation of the error-components model with incomplete panels," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 41(3), pages 341-361, July.
    12. George A. Akerlof, 1982. "Labor Contracts as Partial Gift Exchange," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 97(4), pages 543-569.
    13. Calvo, Guillermo, 1979. "Quasi-Walrasian Theories of Unemployment," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 69(2), pages 102-107, May.
    14. Wadhwani, Sushil & Wall, Martin, 1990. "The Effects of Profit-Sharing on Employment, Wages, Stock Returns and Productivity: Evidence from UK Micro-data," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 100(399), pages 1-17, March.
    15. Bowles, Samuel, 1985. "The Production Process in a Competitive Economy: Walrasian, Neo-Hobbesian, and Marxian Models," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 75(1), pages 16-36, March.
    16. Melvin W. Reder, 1962. "Wage Differentials: Theory and Measurement," NBER Chapters, in: Aspects of Labor Economics, pages 257-317, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    17. Brown, Charles & Medoff, James, 1989. "The Employer Size-Wage Effect," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 97(5), pages 1027-1059, October.
    18. Robert McNabb & Keith Whitfield, 1998. "The Impact of Financial Participation and Employee Involvement on Financial Performance," Scottish Journal of Political Economy, Scottish Economic Society, vol. 45(2), pages 171-187, May.
    19. Erica L. Groshen & Alan B. Krueger, 1990. "The Structure of Supervision and Pay in Hospitals," ILR Review, Cornell University, ILR School, vol. 43(3), pages 134-1-146-, April.
    20. Bradley Ewing & Phanindra Wunnava, 2004. "The Trade-Off Between Supervision Cost and Performance Based Pay: Does Gender Matter?," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 23(5), pages 453-460, December.
    21. Neal, Derek, 1993. "Supervision and Wages across Industries," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 75(3), pages 409-417, August.
    22. Rebitzer, James B., 1995. "Is there a trade-off between supervision and wages? An empirical test of efficiency wage theory," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 28(1), pages 107-129, September.
    23. Weitzman, Martin L, 1985. "The Simple Macroeconomics of Profit Sharing," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 75(5), pages 937-953, December.
    24. Cain, Glen G, 1976. "The Challenge of Segmented Labor Market Theories to Orthodox Theory: A Survey," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 14(4), pages 1215-1257, December.
    25. Bradley T. Ewing & James E. Payne, 1999. "The Trade-Off Between Supervision and Wages: Evidence of Efficiency Wages from the NLSY," Southern Economic Journal, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 66(2), pages 424-432, October.
    26. John T. Dunlop, 1957. "The Task of Contemporary Wage Theory," International Economic Association Series, in: John T. Dunlop (ed.), The Theory of Wage Determination, chapter 0, pages 3-27, Palgrave Macmillan.
    27. Gordon, David M, 1994. "Bosses of Different Stripes: A Cross-National Perspective on Monitoring and Supervision," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 84(2), pages 375-379, May.
    28. repec:bla:scotjp:v:45:y:1998:i:2:p:171-87 is not listed on IDEAS
    29. Alan B. Krueger & Lawrence H. Summers, 1986. "Reflections on the Inter-Industry Wage Structure," NBER Working Papers 1968, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    30. Will Bartlett & John Cable & Saul Estrin & Derek C. Jones & Stephen C. Smith, 1992. "Labor-Managed Cooperatives and Private Firms in North Central Italy: An Empirical Comparison," ILR Review, Cornell University, ILR School, vol. 46(1), pages 103-118, October.
    31. Gordon, David M, 1990. "Who Bosses Whom? The Intensity of Supervision and the Discipline of Labor," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 80(2), pages 28-32, May.
    32. Shapiro, Carl & Stiglitz, Joseph E, 1984. "Equilibrium Unemployment as a Worker Discipline Device," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 74(3), pages 433-444, June.
    33. Magnus Allgulin & Tore Ellingsen, 2002. "Monitoring and Pay," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 20(2), pages 201-216, Part.
    34. Alan B. Krueger, 1991. "Ownership, Agency, and Wages: An Examination of Franchising in the Fast Food Industry," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 106(1), pages 75-101.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Matthias Göcke, 2011. "Efficiency Wages and Negotiated Profit-Sharing under Uncertainty," Applied Economics Quarterly (formerly: Konjunkturpolitik), Duncker & Humblot, Berlin, vol. 57(2), pages 91-105.
    2. L. Monroy & V. Rubiales & A. M. Mármol, 2017. "The conservative Kalai–Smorodinsky solution for multiple scenario bargaining," Annals of Operations Research, Springer, vol. 251(1), pages 285-299, April.
    3. André Cieplinski, 2018. "Supervision and Work Content: Industry level evidence," Department of Economics University of Siena 776, Department of Economics, University of Siena.

    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. John G. Sessions & Nikolaos Theodoropoulos, 2014. "Tenure, Wage Profiles and Monitoring," Research in Labor Economics, in: New Analyses of Worker Well-Being, volume 38, pages 105-162, Emerald Group Publishing Limited.
    2. Ourania Karakosta & Nikos Tsakiris, 2009. "Indirect Tax Reforms and Public Goods under Imperfect Competition," University of Cyprus Working Papers in Economics 5-2009, University of Cyprus Department of Economics.
    3. Andreas P. Georgiadis, 2006. "Is there a Wage-Supervision Trade-Off? Efficiency Wages Evidence From the 1990 British Workplace Industrial Relations Survey," The Centre for Market and Public Organisation 06/152, The Centre for Market and Public Organisation, University of Bristol, UK.
    4. Tetteh, Rebecca & Mohammed, Safura & Ahmed Azumah, Ayisha, 2017. "What is the effect of wages and supervision on productivity? The perspective of Sunyani Technical University staff," MPRA Paper 81473, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    5. Sang‐Moon Hahm & Katarina Mayer, 2011. "Equilibrium unemployment as a discipline device when finding employment is costly," Canadian Journal of Economics/Revue canadienne d'économique, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 44(2), pages 709-717, May.
    6. Georgiadis, Andreas, 2008. "Efficiency wages and the economic effects of the minimum wage: evidence from a low-wage labour market," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 19628, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    7. André Cieplinski, 2018. "Supervision and Work Content: Industry level evidence," Department of Economics University of Siena 776, Department of Economics, University of Siena.
    8. Rebitzer, James B., 1995. "Is there a trade-off between supervision and wages? An empirical test of efficiency wage theory," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 28(1), pages 107-129, September.
    9. Dennis Dittrich & Martin G. Kocher, 2006. "Monitoring and Pay: An Experiment on Employee Performance under Endogenous Supervision," Tinbergen Institute Discussion Papers 06-098/1, Tinbergen Institute.
    10. Kocher, Martin & Dittrich, Dennis, 2006. "Monitoring and Pay: An Experiment on Employee under Endogenous Supervision," CEPR Discussion Papers 5962, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    11. Andreas Georgiadis, 2013. "Efficiency Wages and the Economic Effects of the Minimum Wage: Evidence from a Low-Wage Labour Market," Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics, Department of Economics, University of Oxford, vol. 75(6), pages 962-979, December.
    12. Marco a. Barrenechea‐méndez & Pedro Ortín‐Ángel & Eduardo C. Rodes, 2016. "Autonomy and Monitoring," Journal of Economics & Management Strategy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 25(4), pages 911-935, December.
    13. repec:eee:labchp:v:3:y:1999:i:pb:p:2373-2437 is not listed on IDEAS
    14. repec:eee:labchp:v:3:y:1999:i:pb:p:2291-2372 is not listed on IDEAS
    15. William T. Dickens & Lawrence F. Katz & Kevin Lang & Lawrence H. Summers, 1987. "Employee Crime, Monitoring, and the Efficiency Wage Hypothesis," NBER Working Papers 2356, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    16. Bradley T. Ewing & James E. Payne, 1999. "The Trade‐Off Between Supervision and Wages: Evidence of Efficiency Wages from the NLSY," Southern Economic Journal, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 66(2), pages 424-432, October.
    17. Kevin Lang, 2020. "Effort and wages: Evidence from the payroll tax," Canadian Journal of Economics/Revue canadienne d'économique, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 53(1), pages 108-139, February.
    18. Haiwen Zhou, 2020. "Monitoring Intensity and Technology Choice in a Model of Unemployment," Eastern Economic Journal, Palgrave Macmillan;Eastern Economic Association, vol. 46(3), pages 504-520, June.
    19. Rebitzer, James B. & Taylor, Lowell J., 2011. "Extrinsic Rewards and Intrinsic Motives: Standard and Behavioral Approaches to Agency and Labor Markets," Handbook of Labor Economics, in: O. Ashenfelter & D. Card (ed.), Handbook of Labor Economics, edition 1, volume 4, chapter 8, pages 701-772, Elsevier.
    20. Moritz Meyer-ter-Vehn & Simon Adrian Board, 2011. "Relational Contracts and On-the-Job Search," 2011 Meeting Papers 1204, Society for Economic Dynamics.
    21. Ernesto Screpanti, 2000. "Wages, Employment, and Militancy: A Simple Model and Some Empirical Tests," Review of Radical Political Economics, Union for Radical Political Economics, vol. 32(2), pages 171-196, June.
    22. Lin, Chung-cheng & Chang, Juin-jen & Lai, Ching-chong, 2002. "Profit sharing as a worker discipline device," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 19(5), pages 815-828, November.

    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:quaeco:v:48:y:2008:i:4:p:653-672. 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/inca/620167 .

    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.