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Will Markets Provide Humane Jobs? A Hypothesis

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  • Arash Nekoei

Abstract

Most of the key amenities of our today jobs did not emerge in private contracts; instead, they appeared in collective agreements and regulations. I argue that understanding this observation can guide the provision of future amenities. I show that markets underprovide an amenity if workers who value it more have a lower average unobserved productivity. Universal mandate of such amenities improves social welfare when taste-productivity correlation is high. Policies that leverage heterogeneity in the taste-productivity correlation by observable characteristics, e.g., quota and tagging, dominate mandate in the presence of a mild adverse selection.

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  • Arash Nekoei, 2022. "Will Markets Provide Humane Jobs? A Hypothesis," CESifo Working Paper Series 9533, CESifo.
    • Handle: RePEc:ces:ceswps:_9533
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    File URL: https://www.cesifo.org/DocDL/cesifo1_wp9533.pdf
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Cited by:

    1. Natalia Emanuel & Emma Harrington, 2023. "Working Remotely? Selection, Treatment, and the Market for Remote Work," Staff Reports 1061, Federal Reserve Bank of New York.

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