IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/ratsoc/v9y1997i3p351-371.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The Wages Of Trust

Author

Listed:
  • Rudi Wielers

Abstract

In this paper it is argued that the assumptions of the neoclassical and wage efficiency models do not adequately explain the governance structure of employment relationships. Trust may be a constituent element of at least some employment relationships, e.g. those of child minders. According to the tradition of research in social science, trust is established by gifts. It is argued that in employment relationships in which both employer and employee have a gain and damage potential, gifts will be used to establish a trust relationship. This argument helps to produce new hypotheses about wages and allocation in employment relationships. The model is elaborated for the employment relationships of child minders. It is shown that it is not only job and human capital characteristics that determine wages, but also the financial resources of the parents (or employers). In addition, more personal means of exchange are used to establish trust relationships. It is concluded that the trust argument helps to explain different governance structures in employment relationships.

Suggested Citation

  • Rudi Wielers, 1997. "The Wages Of Trust," Rationality and Society, , vol. 9(3), pages 351-371, August.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:ratsoc:v:9:y:1997:i:3:p:351-371
    DOI: 10.1177/104346397009003005
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/104346397009003005
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/104346397009003005?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
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Salop, Steven C, 1979. "A Model of the Natural Rate of Unemployment," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 69(1), pages 117-125, March.
    2. 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.
    3. Weiss, Andrew W, 1980. "Job Queues and Layoffs in Labor Markets with Flexible Wages," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 88(3), pages 526-538, June.
    4. repec:eee:labchp:v:2:y:1986:i:c:p:1183-1217 is not listed on IDEAS
    5. 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.
    6. Thurow, Lester, 1983. "Dangerous Currents: The State of Economics," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780198771838.
    7. 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.
    8. Polachek,Solomon W. & Siebert,W. Stanley, 1993. "The Economics of Earnings," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9780521367288.
    9. Samuel Bowles & Herbert Gintis, 1993. "The Revenge of Homo Economicus: Contested Exchange and the Revival of Political Economy," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 7(1), pages 83-102, Winter.
    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. 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. Veronique Genre & Karsten Kohn & Daphne Momferatou, 2011. "Understanding inter-industry wage structures in the euro area," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 43(11), pages 1299-1313.
    4. Bai, Peiwen & Cheng, Wenli, 2020. "Relative earnings and firm performance: Evidence from publicly-listed firms in China, 2005–2012," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 66(C), pages 279-290.
    5. Campbell, Carl M., 2014. "The formation of wage expectations in the effort and quit decisions of workers," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 42(C), pages 313-322.
    6. Chung‐Cheng Lin & Ching‐Chong Lai, 1998. "Efficiency Wages, Partial Wage Rigidity, and Money Nonneutrality," Southern Economic Journal, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 65(2), pages 331-340, October.
    7. Zhang, Xuelin & Morissette, Rene, 2001. "Which Firms Have High Job Vacancy Rates in Canada?," Analytical Studies Branch Research Paper Series 2001176e, Statistics Canada, Analytical Studies Branch.
    8. Sonia R Bhalotra, 1998. "Investigating Rationality in Wage-Setting," STICERD - Development Economics Papers - From 2008 this series has been superseded by Economic Organisation and Public Policy Discussion Papers 10, Suntory and Toyota International Centres for Economics and Related Disciplines, LSE.
    9. Yahya Madra & Fikret Adaman, 2013. "Neoliberal reason and its forms:Depoliticization through economization," Working Papers 2013/07, Bogazici University, Department of Economics.
    10. Stadler, Manfred, 1996. "Elemente und Funktionsweise des strukturalistischen Ansatzes zur Erklärung der Arbeitslosigkeit," Tübinger Diskussionsbeiträge 65, University of Tübingen, School of Business and Economics.
    11. Seref Saygili, 1998. "Is the Efficiency Wage Hypothesis Valid for Developing Countries? Evidence from the Turkish Cement Industry," Studies in Economics 9810, School of Economics, University of Kent.
    12. Sophia Delipalla & Peter Sanfey, 2001. "Commodity Taxes, Wage Determination, and Profits," Journal of Public Economic Theory, Association for Public Economic Theory, vol. 3(2), pages 203-217, April.
    13. Vesna Stavrevska, 2011. "The efficiency wages perspective to wage rigidity in the open economy: a survey," International Journal of Manpower, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 32(3), pages 273-299, June.
    14. Hélène Zajdela, 1990. "Le dualisme du marché du travail : enjeux et fondements théoriques," Économie et Prévision, Programme National Persée, vol. 92(1), pages 31-42.
    15. Michael Hoel, 1990. "Efficiency wages and income taxes," Journal of Economics, Springer, vol. 51(1), pages 89-99, February.
    16. Nadia Oliva & Andrea Pacella, 2016. "Does Firms¡¯ Social Responsibility Counteract Some Critical Effects of Labor Market Flexibility?," Journal of Management and Sustainability, Canadian Center of Science and Education, vol. 6(1), pages 109-120, March.
    17. Harilaos Mertzanis, 2009. "Efficiency Wages, Inflation And Growth," Journal of Economic Development, Chung-Ang Unviersity, Department of Economics, vol. 34(2), pages 131-151, December.
    18. Schlicht, Ekkehart, 1992. "Wage Generosity," Munich Reprints in Economics 3165, University of Munich, Department of Economics.
    19. Yim, Hyejin & Katare, Bhagyashree & Cuffey, Joel, 2022. "Does Increasing Minimum Wage Impact Service Quality? Evidence from Restaurant Food Safety Inspections," 2022 Annual Meeting, July 31-August 2, Anaheim, California 322411, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    20. 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:sae:ratsoc:v:9:y:1997:i:3:p:351-371. 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: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: .

    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.