Human capital and deferred compensation might explain why firms employ but do nothire older workers. Adjustments of wage-tenure profiles for older new entrants areexplored in the context of deferred compensation. From an equity theory perspective,such adjustments might lead to adverse incentive...

A large, mature and robust economic literature on pay for performance now exists, whichprovides a useful framework for thinking about pay for performance systems. I use thelessons of the literature to discuss how to design and implement pay for performance inpractice....

This paper exploits a quasi-experimental setting to estimate the impact that a multi-dimensional group incentive scheme had on branch performance in a large distribution firm. The scheme, which is based on the Balanced Scorecard, was implemented in all branches in one division, but not in another...

The Peter Principle states that, after a promotion, the observed output of promotedemployees tends to fall. Lazear (2004) models this principle as resulting from a regression tothe mean of the transitory component of ability...

We empirically investigate if tournaments between heterogeneous contestants are less intensive. To test our hypotheses we use professional sports data from the TOYOTA Handball-Bundesliga, the major handball league in Germany.[...]

We report the first results for Korean firms on the incidence, diffusion, scope and effects ofdiverse employee financial participation schemes, such as Profit Sharing Plans (PSPs),Employee Stock Ownership Plans (ESOPs), Stock Option Plans (SOPs) and Team IncentivePlans (TIPs). In do doing, we...

This paper experimentally investigates the impact of different pay and relative performance information policies on employee effort. We explore three information policies: No feedback about relative performance, feedback given halfway through the production period, and continuously updated...

This study uses panel data describing about 6,500 employees in a large international companyto study the incentive effects of performance related pay. The company uses two performancerelated remuneration mechanisms. One is an individual "surprise" bonus payment. The other isa more structured...

We analyze the effect of investments in corporate social responsibility(CSR) on workers’ motivation. In our experiment, a gift exchange game variant,CSR is captured by donating a certain share of profits to a charity. Weare testing for CSR effects by varying the possible share of profits given...

This chapter reviews the literature on employment and labor law. The goal of the review is tounderstand why every jurisdiction in the world has extensive employment law, particularlyemployment protection law, while most economic analysis of the law suggests that lessemployment protection would...