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Wages, Bonuses and Appropriation of Profit in the Financial Industry. The Working Rich

Author

Listed:
  • Olivier Godechot

    (OSC - Observatoire sociologique du changement (Sciences Po, CNRS) - Sciences Po - Sciences Po - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique)

Abstract

The present financial crisis led the whole world to ask questions of the financial industry. Why are wages in the financial industry so important? Are bonuses responsible for the financial crisis? Where do bonuses come from? Politicians and others urged people to believe that the crisis was the price of Wall Street's greed and blamed the ‘bonus culture' prevalent in the financial industry. But despite being widely condemned and the threat of tighter regulation, bonuses in the industry have shown great resilience. Wages, Bonuses and Appropriation of Profit in the Financial Industry provides an in-depth inquiry into the bonus system. Drawing on examples from France, the City and Wall Street, it explains how and why workers in the financial industry can get such large bonuses. The book considers issues around incentives, morality and wealth-sharing among employees, including the rise of "the working rich" who have earned most from the high wages and large bonuses on offer to some employees. These people have earned a fortune through their work and new forms of exploitation in our ever-more dematerialized economy. This book shows how the most mobile employees holding the most mobile assets can exploit the most immobile stakeholders. In our world where inequalities are sharply rising, it is therefore an important study of one of the key contemporary issues. This book will be of interest to those studying finance, banking or political economy. (Publisher's abstract)

Suggested Citation

  • Olivier Godechot, 2017. "Wages, Bonuses and Appropriation of Profit in the Financial Industry. The Working Rich," SciencePo Working papers Main hal-01433807, HAL.
  • Handle: RePEc:hal:spmain:hal-01433807
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    Citations

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    Cited by:

    1. Olivier Godechot, 2020. "The Great Separation: Top Earner Segregation at Work in High-Income Countries," Working Papers hal-03098791, HAL.
    2. repec:spo:wpmain:info:hdl:2441/4ff88coju39nk8b11b5ghfc1ff is not listed on IDEAS
    3. Joowoong Park & Jae-Suk Yang, 2019. "Moderating Effects of the Timing of Reward Determination and Performance Standards between Rewards and Self-Efficacy for Sustainable Intrinsic Motivation," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(17), pages 1-20, August.
    4. Olivier Godechot, 2019. "Conclusion: What finance manufactures," Post-Print hal-03393812, HAL.
    5. Godechot, Olivier & Neumann, Nils & Apascaritei, Paula & Boza, István & Hällsten, Martin & Henriksen, Lasse Folke & Hermansen, Are & Hou, Feng & Jung, Jiwook & Kodama, Naomi & Křížková, Alena & Lippén, 2021. "Ups and downs in finance, ups without downs in inequality," MaxPo Discussion Paper Series 21/2, Max Planck Sciences Po Center on Coping with Instability in Market Societies (MaxPo).
    6. Olivier Godechot & Paula Apascaritei & István Boza & Martin Hallsten & Lasse Henriksen & Are Hermansen & Feng Hou & Jiwook Jung & Alena Křížková & Zoltán Lippényi & Elvira Marta & Silvia Maja Melzer &, 2021. "Size and evolution of the financial wage premium. Unpublished translation of “Ampleur et évolution dela prime salariale financière”, Regards croisés sur l'économie, 2020, 27(2): 97-109," SciencePo Working papers Main hal-03363171, HAL.
    7. Linsi, Lukas Andreas & Hopkin, Jonathan & Jaupart, Pascal, 2019. "Exporting the winner-take-all economy: micro-level evidence on the impact of US investors on executive pay in the United Kingdom," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 102217, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    8. Linsi, Lukas & Hopkin, Jonathan & Jaupart, Pascal, 2023. "Exporting inequality: US investors and the Americanization of executive pay in the United Kingdom," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 113543, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    9. repec:hal:spmain:info:hdl:2441/4ff88coju39nk8b11b5ghfc1ff is not listed on IDEAS

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