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Optimal Incentive Contracts when Workers envy their Boss

Author

Listed:
  • Robert Dur

    (Department of Economics, Erasmus Universiteit Rotterdam)

  • Amihai Glazer

    (Department of Economics, University of California, Irvine, California, USA)

Abstract

A worker's utility may increase with his income, but envy can make his utility decline with his employer's income. This article uses a principal-agent model to study profit-maximizing contracts when a worker envies his employer. Envy tightens the worker's participation constraint and so calls for higher pay and/or a softer effort requirement. Moreover, a firm with an envious worker can benefit from profit sharing, even when the worker's effort is fully contractible. We discuss several applications of our theoretical work: envy can explain why a lower-level worker is awarded stock options, why incentive pay is lower in nonprofit organizations, and how governmental production of a good can be cheaper than private production. This discussion paper has resulted in a publication in the Journal of Law, Economics and Organization . (2008, 24(1), 120-138.)

Suggested Citation

  • Robert Dur & Amihai Glazer, 2004. "Optimal Incentive Contracts when Workers envy their Boss," Tinbergen Institute Discussion Papers 04-046/1, Tinbergen Institute, revised 13 Jun 2006.
    • Handle: RePEc:tin:wpaper:20040046
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    References listed on IDEAS

    as
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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Principal-agent; Envy; Compensation; Contracts; Profit-sharing; Stock options; Public vs. private production;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D23 - Microeconomics - - Production and Organizations - - - Organizational Behavior; Transaction Costs; Property Rights
    • J31 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Wages, Compensation, and Labor Costs - - - Wage Level and Structure; Wage Differentials
    • J33 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Wages, Compensation, and Labor Costs - - - Compensation Packages; Payment Methods
    • M52 - Business Administration and Business Economics; Marketing; Accounting; Personnel Economics - - Personnel Economics - - - Compensation and Compensation Methods and Their Effects

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