The standard explanation of wage rigidity in principal agent and in efficiency wage models is related to worker risk-aversion. However, these explanations do not consider at least two important classes of empirical evidence: (1) In worker cooperatives workers appear to behave in a less risk...

We model how the choices by students to “rush” a fraternity, and the choices by a fraternity of whom to admit, interact with the signals that firms receive about student productivities to determine labor market outcomes. Both the fraternity and students care about future wages and fraternity...

We study optimal incentives in a principal-agent problem in which the agent's outside option is determined endogenously in a competitive labor market. In equilibrium, strong performance increases the agent's market value. When this value becomes sufficiently high, the threat of the agent's...

The aim of our paper is to disentangle the relationship between ownership and wages using cross-section data for Slovenian medium size and large companies, where we account for spatial dependencies in wage determination. Space here is not considered in geographical context, but as a set of...

Workers in less secure jobs are often paid less than identical-looking workers in more secure jobs. We show that this lack of compensating differentials for unemployment risk can arise in equilibrium when all workers are identical, and firms differ, but do so only in offered job security (the...

We propose a modified version of the Shapiro-Stiglitz’s (1984) efficiency wage model by introducing temporary contracts in the standard setup. New theoretical insights emerge on the incentive problem faced by workers and firms. We argue that the existence of temporary contracts broaden the...

In this paper, we estimate wage differentials among Italian university Graduates three years after graduation due to sequential geographic mobility. By means of a matching procedure we quantify wage premia associated with the choice of studying far from home, moving after graduation and moving...

Hedonic analysis is frequently implemented to generate implicit prices for location-specific amenities within single markets, either in cross-city wage differentials or within-city rent gradients. Amenities are shown to be generally priced in both land and labor markets, with single market...

Our paper studies the causes of poverty from the perspective of job search. We show that poor people remain poor because they have less time and initial endowment to search for a better job. Initial endowment is key to successful job search, as one can afford not to work and search longer for a...

We evaluate public-private sector wage differentials in Turkey for the years 2005 and 2011, a period marked by educational upgrading and restructuring in public employment. Using micro data from Household Labour Force Surveys we find a positive premium for low wage earners and a penalty of...