IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/zbw/glodps/1524.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Does Performance Pay Increase the Risk of Worker Loneliness?

Author

Listed:
  • Baktash, Mehrzad B.

Abstract

Increased wages and productivity associated with performance pay can be beneficial to both employers and employees. However, performance pay can also entail unintended consequences for workers' well-being. This study is the first to systematically examine the association between performance pay and loneliness, a significant social well-being concern. Using representative survey data from Germany, I find that performance pay is positively associated with incidence, dimensions, and intensity of loneliness. Correspondingly, performance pay is negatively associated with social life satisfaction of the workers. The findings also hold in sensible instrumental variable estimations addressing the potential endogeneity of performance pay and in various robustness checks. Investigating the potential role of moderating factors reveals that the association between performance pay and loneliness is particularly large for private sector employees. Finally, implications are discussed.

Suggested Citation

  • Baktash, Mehrzad B., 2024. "Does Performance Pay Increase the Risk of Worker Loneliness?," GLO Discussion Paper Series 1524, Global Labor Organization (GLO).
    • Handle: RePEc:zbw:glodps:1524
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.econstor.eu/bitstream/10419/306677/1/GLO-DP-1524.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Keane, Michael P., 2010. "Structural vs. atheoretic approaches to econometrics," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 156(1), pages 3-20, May.
    2. Encinosa III, William E. & Gaynor, Martin & Rebitzer, James B., 2007. "The sociology of groups and the economics of incentives: Theory and evidence on compensation systems," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 62(2), pages 187-214, February.
    3. Burks, Stephen & Carpenter, Jeffrey & Goette, Lorenz, 2009. "Performance pay and worker cooperation: Evidence from an artefactual field experiment," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 70(3), pages 458-469, June.
    4. Wo[ss]mann, Ludger & West, Martin, 2006. "Class-size effects in school systems around the world: Evidence from between-grade variation in TIMSS," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 50(3), pages 695-736, April.
    5. Paarsch, Harry J & Shearer, Bruce, 2000. "Piece Rates, Fixed Wages, and Incentive Effects: Statistical Evidence from Payroll Records," International Economic Review, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania and Osaka University Institute of Social and Economic Research Association, vol. 41(1), pages 59-92, February.
    6. Thomas Lemieux & W. Bentley MacLeod & Daniel Parent, 2009. "Performance Pay and Wage Inequality," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 124(1), pages 1-49.
    7. Oriana Bandiera & Iwan Barankay & Imran Rasul, 2005. "Social Preferences and the Response to Incentives: Evidence from Personnel Data," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 120(3), pages 917-962.
    8. Keith Bender & Colin Green & John Heywood, 2012. "Piece rates and workplace injury: Does survey evidence support Adam Smith?," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 25(2), pages 569-590, January.
    9. Machin, Stephen J & Wadhwani, Sushil, 1991. "The Effects of Unions on Organisational Change and Employment," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 101(407), pages 835-854, July.
    10. John Heywood & Uwe Jirjahn & Georgi Tsertsvadze, 2005. "Does profit sharing reduce conflict with the boss? Evidence from Germany," International Economic Journal, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 19(2), pages 235-250.
    11. Benjamin Artz & John S. Heywood, 2015. "Performance Pay and Workplace Injury: Panel Evidence," Economica, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 82, pages 1241-1260, December.
    12. Alberto Bayo-Moriones & Jose Enrique Galdon-Sanchez & Sara Martinez-De-Morentin, 2013. "The Diffusion of Pay for Performance across Occupations," ILR Review, Cornell University, ILR School, vol. 66(5), pages 1115-1148, October.
    13. Vella, Francis & Verbeek, Marno, 1999. "Estimating and Interpreting Models with Endogenous Treatment Effects," Journal of Business & Economic Statistics, American Statistical Association, vol. 17(4), pages 473-478, October.
    14. Mehrzad B. Baktash & John S. Heywood & Uwe Jirjahn, 2022. "Performance pay and alcohol use in Germany," Industrial Relations: A Journal of Economy and Society, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 61(4), pages 353-383, October.
    15. Heywood, John S. & Jirjahn, Uwe & Struewing, Cornelia, 2017. "Locus of control and performance appraisal," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 142(C), pages 205-225.
    16. Heywood, John S. & Wei, Xiangdong & Ye, Guangliang, 2011. "Piece rates for professors," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 113(3), pages 285-287.
    17. Benjamin Artz & John S Heywood, 2024. "Performance pay and work hours: US survey evidence," Oxford Economic Papers, Oxford University Press, vol. 76(3), pages 609-627.
    18. Green, Colin P. & Heywood, John S., 2023. "Performance pay, work hours and employee health in the UK," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 84(C).
    19. Thomas Dohmen & Armin Falk, 2011. "Performance Pay and Multidimensional Sorting: Productivity, Preferences, and Gender," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 101(2), pages 556-590, April.
    20. Joshua D. Angrist & Jörn-Steffen Pischke, 2009. "Mostly Harmless Econometrics: An Empiricist's Companion," Economics Books, Princeton University Press, edition 1, number 8769.
    21. Cornelissen, Thomas & Heywood, John S. & Jirjahn, Uwe, 2011. "Performance pay, risk attitudes and job satisfaction," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 18(2), pages 229-239, April.
    22. Paarsch, Harry J. & Shearer, Bruce S., 2007. "Do women react differently to incentives? Evidence from experimental data and payroll records," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 51(7), pages 1682-1707, October.
    23. Daniel Parent, 1999. "Methods of Pay and Earnings: A Longitudinal Analysis," ILR Review, Cornell University, ILR School, vol. 53(1), pages 71-86, October.
    24. Valtorta, N.K. & Moore, D.C. & Barron, L. & Stow, D. & Hanratty, B., 2018. "Older adults’ social relationships and health care utilization: A systematic review," American Journal of Public Health, American Public Health Association, vol. 108(4), pages 1-10.
    25. Tuomas Pekkarinen & Chris Riddell, 2008. "Performance Pay and Earnings: Evidence from Personnel Records," ILR Review, Cornell University, ILR School, vol. 61(3), pages 297-319, April.
    26. Lepinteur, Anthony & Clark, Andrew E. & Ferrer-i-Carbonell, Ada & Piper, Alan & Schröder, Carsten & D'Ambrosio, Conchita, 2022. "Gender, loneliness and happiness during COVID-19," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 101(C).
    27. Sullivan, Diane M. & Bendell, Bari L., 2023. "Help! Lonely at work: Managerial interventions to combat employee loneliness," Business Horizons, Elsevier, vol. 66(5), pages 655-666.
    28. Ricardo Azambuja & Gazi Islam, 2019. "Working at the boundaries: Middle managerial work as a source of emancipation and alienation," Grenoble Ecole de Management (Post-Print) halshs-01959107, HAL.
    29. Allan, Julia L. & Andelic, Nicole & Bender, Keith A. & Powell, Daniel & Stoffel, Sandro & Theodossiou, Ioannis, 2021. "Employment contracts and stress: Experimental evidence," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 187(C), pages 360-373.
    30. Julianne Holt-Lunstad & Timothy B Smith & J Bradley Layton, 2010. "Social Relationships and Mortality Risk: A Meta-analytic Review," PLOS Medicine, Public Library of Science, vol. 7(7), pages 1-1, July.
    31. Kandel, Eugene & Lazear, Edward P, 1992. "Peer Pressure and Partnerships," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 100(4), pages 801-817, August.
    32. Keith A. Bender & Ioannis Theodossiou, 2014. "The unintended consequences of the rat race: the detrimental effects of performance pay on health," Oxford Economic Papers, Oxford University Press, vol. 66(3), pages 824-847.
    33. Uri Gneezy & Aldo Rustichini, 2004. "Gender and Competition at a Young Age," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 94(2), pages 377-381, May.
    34. Booth, Alison L & Frank, Jeff, 1999. "Earnings, Productivity, and Performance-Related Pay," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 17(3), pages 447-463, July.
    35. Bruce Shearer, 2004. "Piece Rates, Fixed Wages and Incentives: Evidence from a Field Experiment," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 71(2), pages 513-534.
    36. Anne Gielen & Marcel Kerkhofs & Jan Ours, 2010. "How performance related pay affects productivity and employment," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 23(1), pages 291-301, January.
    37. James J. Heckman, 2000. "Causal Parameters and Policy Analysis in Economics: A Twentieth Century Retrospective," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 115(1), pages 45-97.
    38. Seiler, Eric, 1984. "Piece Rate vs. Time Rate: The Effect of Incentives on Earnings," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 66(3), pages 363-376, August.
    39. Christos Bilanakos & John S. Heywood & John G. Sessions & Nikolaos Theodoropoulos, 2018. "Does Delegation Increase Worker Training?," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 56(2), pages 1089-1115, April.
    40. Benjamin Artz & Colin P. Green & John S. Heywood, 2021. "Does performance pay increase alcohol and drug use?," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 34(3), pages 969-1002, July.
    41. William Greene, 1998. "Gender Economics Courses in Liberal Arts Colleges: Comment," Working Papers 98-06, New York University, Leonard N. Stern School of Business, Department of Economics.
    42. Alex Bryson & Richard B. Freeman, 2014. "Employee Stock Purchase Plans - Gift or Incentive? Evidence from a Multinational Corporation," CEP Discussion Papers dp1307, Centre for Economic Performance, LSE.
    43. Baktash, Mehrzad B. & Heywood, John S. & Jirjahn, Uwe, 2022. "Worker stress and performance pay: German survey evidence," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 201(C), pages 276-291.
    44. Drago, Robert & Garvey, Gerald T, 1998. "Incentives for Helping on the Job: Theory and Evidence," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 16(1), pages 1-25, January.
    45. Colin P. Green & John S. Heywood, 2016. "Don't Forget the Gravy! Are Bonuses Just Added on Top of Salaries?," Industrial Relations: A Journal of Economy and Society, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 55(3), pages 490-513, July.
    46. John S. Heywood & Uwe Jirjahn & Georgi Tsertsvadze, 2005. "Getting along with Colleagues – Does Profit Sharing Help or Hurt?," Kyklos, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 58(4), pages 557-573, November.
    47. Weiyi Zhang & Hiromasa Takahashi & Junyi Shen, 2016. "Does Physical Exercise Affect Tradeoffs between Fixed Pay and Performance-related Pay for Individuals?," Discussion Paper Series DP2016-13, Research Institute for Economics & Business Administration, Kobe University.
    48. Gerst-Emerson, K. & Jayawardhana, J., 2015. "Loneliness as a public health issue: The impact of loneliness on health care utilization among older adults," American Journal of Public Health, American Public Health Association, vol. 105(5), pages 1013-1019.
    49. Plümper, Thomas & Troeger, Vera E., 2019. "Not so Harmless After All: The Fixed-Effects Model," Political Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 27(1), pages 21-45, January.
    50. Fisman, Raymond & Svensson, Jakob, 2007. "Are corruption and taxation really harmful to growth? Firm level evidence," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 83(1), pages 63-75, May.
    51. William H. Greene, 1998. "Gender Economics Courses in Liberal Arts Colleges: Further Results," The Journal of Economic Education, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 29(4), pages 291-300, January.
    52. Uri Gneezy & Muriel Niederle & Aldo Rustichini, 2003. "Performance in Competitive Environments: Gender Differences," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 118(3), pages 1049-1074.
    53. Uwe Jirjahn & Gesine Stephan, 2004. "Gender, piece rates and wages: evidence from matched employer--employee data," Cambridge Journal of Economics, Cambridge Political Economy Society, vol. 28(5), pages 683-704, September.
    54. Tat‐kei Lai & Travis Ng, 2014. "The impact of product market competition on training provision: Evidence from Canada," Canadian Journal of Economics/Revue canadienne d'économique, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 47(3), pages 856-888, August.
    55. Kristi J. MacDonald & Gonneke Willemsen & Dorret I. Boomsma & Julie Aitken Schermer, 2020. "Predicting Loneliness from Where and What People Do," Social Sciences, MDPI, vol. 9(4), pages 1-9, April.
    56. Tatkei Lai & Travis Ng, 2014. "The impact of product market competition on training provision: Evidence from Canada," Canadian Journal of Economics, Canadian Economics Association, vol. 47(3), pages 856-888, August.
    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. Baktash, Mehrzad B. & Heywood, John S. & Jirjahn, Uwe, 2022. "Worker stress and performance pay: German survey evidence," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 201(C), pages 276-291.
    2. Mehrzad B. Baktash & John S. Heywood & Uwe Jirjahn, 2022. "Performance pay and alcohol use in Germany," Industrial Relations: A Journal of Economy and Society, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 61(4), pages 353-383, October.
    3. Baktash, Mehrzad B. & Heywood, John S. & Jirjahn, Uwe, 2023. "Does Performance Pay Increase the Risk of Marital Instability?," GLO Discussion Paper Series 1305, Global Labor Organization (GLO).
    4. Baktash, Mehrzad B., 2023. "Overeducation, Performance Pay and Wages: Evidence from Germany," GLO Discussion Paper Series 1327, Global Labor Organization (GLO).
    5. Green, Colin P. & Heywood, John S., 2023. "Performance pay, work hours and employee health in the UK," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 84(C).
    6. Benjamin Artz & Colin P. Green & John S. Heywood, 2021. "Does performance pay increase alcohol and drug use?," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 34(3), pages 969-1002, July.
    7. Jirjahn, Uwe & Rienzo, Cinzia, 2024. "Working from Home and Performance Pay: Individual or Collective Payment Schemes?," IZA Discussion Papers 17234, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    8. Baktash, Mehrzad B. & Heywood, John S. & Jirjahn, Uwe, 2024. "Variable Pay and Work Hours: Does Performance Pay Reduce the Gender Time Gap?," GLO Discussion Paper Series 1450, Global Labor Organization (GLO).
    9. Uwe Jirjahn & Jens Mohrenweiser, 2021. "Works councils and organizational gender policies in Germany," British Journal of Industrial Relations, London School of Economics, vol. 59(4), pages 1020-1048, December.
    10. Green, Colin P. & Heywood, John S., 2022. "Does Performance Pay Influence Hours of Work?," IZA Discussion Papers 15474, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    11. Green, Colin P. & Heywood, John S., 2010. "Profit sharing and the quality of relations with the boss," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 17(5), pages 859-867, October.
    12. Cornelissen, Thomas & Heywood, John S. & Jirjahn, Uwe, 2011. "Performance pay, risk attitudes and job satisfaction," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 18(2), pages 229-239, April.
    13. Nicole Andelic & Julia Allan & Keith A. Bender & Daniel Powell & Ioannis Theodossiou, 2024. "Performance‐related pay, mental and physiological health," Industrial Relations: A Journal of Economy and Society, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 63(1), pages 3-25, January.
    14. Marco Clemens, 2024. "Bonuses, Profit-sharing and Job Satisfaction: the More, the Better?," IAAEU Discussion Papers 202406, Institute of Labour Law and Industrial Relations in the European Union (IAAEU).
    15. repec:lan:wpaper:2928 is not listed on IDEAS
    16. Uwe Jirjahn & Jens Mohrenweiser, 2019. "Performance Pay and Applicant Screening," British Journal of Industrial Relations, London School of Economics, vol. 57(3), pages 540-575, September.
    17. Chadi, Cornelia, 2023. "Too stressed to sleep? Downsizing, job insecurity and sleep behavior," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 51(C).
    18. Charness, Gary & Kuhn, Peter, 2011. "Lab Labor: What Can Labor Economists Learn from the Lab?," Handbook of Labor Economics, in: O. Ashenfelter & D. Card (ed.), Handbook of Labor Economics, edition 1, volume 4, chapter 3, pages 229-330, Elsevier.
    19. Allan, Julia L. & Andelic, Nicole & Bender, Keith A. & Powell, Daniel & Stoffel, Sandro & Theodossiou, Ioannis, 2021. "Employment contracts and stress: Experimental evidence," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 187(C), pages 360-373.
    20. repec:lan:wpaper:3020 is not listed on IDEAS
    21. repec:lan:wpaper:3175 is not listed on IDEAS
    22. Erling Barth & Bernt Bratsberg & Torbjørn Hægeland & Oddbjørn Raaum, 2008. "Performance Pay and Within-Firm Wage Inequality," Discussion Papers 535, Statistics Norway, Research Department.
    23. K. Sommerfeld, 2013. "Higher and higher? Performance pay and wage inequality in Germany," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 45(30), pages 4236-4247, October.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Performance Pay; Loneliness; Social Life; Well-Being; SOEP;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • J33 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Wages, Compensation, and Labor Costs - - - Compensation Packages; Payment Methods
    • I31 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Welfare, Well-Being, and Poverty - - - General Welfare, Well-Being
    • J32 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Wages, Compensation, and Labor Costs - - - Nonwage Labor Costs and Benefits; Retirement Plans; Private Pensions
    • I10 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - General

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    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:zbw:glodps:1524. 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: ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/glabode.html .

    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.