Job search procedures are a form of human capital investment in that they involve current investments to enhance future returns, analogous to human capital investments in areas such as education, training and mobility that yield future returns. While the theoretical and empirical literature on...

Tournaments are widely used to assign bonuses and determine promotions because of the link between relative performance and rewards. However, performing relatively well (poorly) may also yield psychological benefits (pain). This may also stimulate effort. Through a real-effort artefactual field...

Since China promulgated new minimum wage regulations in 2004, the magnitude and frequency of changes in the minimum wage have been substantial, both over time and across jurisdictions. This paper uses county-level minimum wage panel data and a longitudinal household survey from 16 representative...

This paper uses the national firm level survey data to investigate the effects of Chinese unions on firm performance. We show that Chinese unions have a strong State-Party voice face and a collective voice face but lack of monopoly face. The government influence plays an important role in...

The conditions under which profit sharing affects workplace productivity have never been fully understood. Using panel data, this paper examines whether there is any link between adoption of an employee profit sharing plan and subsequent productivity growth in Canadian establishments, and...

We use Chinese firm-level data from the World Bank Investment Climate Survey to examine the link between importing intermediates and intra-firm wage inequality. Our results show that intermediate input importers not only have a significant wage premium but also have a greater intra-firm wage...

Using unique matched employer-employee data from China, we discover that migrant workers in the manufacturing industry who are proficient in the local dialect earn lower wages than those who are not. We also find that workers with better dialect skills are more likely to settle for lower wages...

This paper provides new insights into the longstanding empirical issue of whether the type of workplace saving plan (a "traditional" registered pension plan or RPP, a "flexible" group registered retirement savings plan or group RRSP, and a "hybrid" arrangement of the two) affects employee...

Using the longitudinal Workplace and Employee Survey of Canada, we examine the association between the provision of work-life benefits and various employment outcomes in the Canadian labour market. Whilst the theory of compensating wage differentials hypothesizes an inevitable trade-off between...

This paper examines the effects of working time reduction policy on labour supply (hours of work and whether an individual takes a second job) and household production, by exploiting the Chinese Two-Day Weekend Policy, which effectively reduced weekly working days from six to five in May 1995,...