competition for principals or agents. While we do observe substantial and significant ratchet effects in the baseline (no … competition) case of our model, we find that ratchet behavior is nearly eliminated by labor-market competition; interestingly this …

is true regardless of whether market conditions favor principals or agents. -- Ratchet effect ; competition ; experiment … competition for principals or agents. While we do observe substantial and significant ratchet effects in the baseline (no … competition) case of our model, we find that ratchet behavior is nearly eliminated by labor-market competition; interestingly this …

be derived from reaching a better relative position. We use a real-effort experiment in which we permit individuals to … ; experiment …

robustness to labor market competition both theoretically and experimentally. Consistent with our theoretical model, we observe … substantial ratchet effects in the absence of competition, which is nearly eliminated when competition is introduced; this is true …