Prior authors note that investor distraction during Fridays and some holidays leads to muted responses to earnings surprises. We develop daily investor distraction measures using abnormal U.S. air traffic to proxy for investor distraction. These measures provide additional predictive information...

We compare the economic approach to research on personnel and organizational design to approaches from behavioral disciplines. Instead of a survey of the field, our emphasis is on topics which are important in organizational research outside of economics, yet have been little emphasized by...

Using detailed personnel data from a firm, we analyze the real effects of the kind of compensation system that is used in many large firms--the Hay system. Such compensation systems are highly centralized and bureaucratic, with little ability for managers to adjust incentives for different job...

This study empirically examines two basic questions. First, where and why do firms make greater or lesser use of subjectivity in the performance evaluations that lead to annual bonuses? Second, what are the effects of greater or lesser use of subjectivity on employee pay satisfaction? We examine...

A large, mature and robust literature now provides a useful framework for designing and implementing pay for performance. Several excellent surveys of this research are available. The purpose of this chapter is not to provide yet another survey, but to use the lessons of the economic literature...

We study effects of a firm’s attempt to optimize an existing incentive scheme to increase sales growth for direct store delivery workers. Before optimization workers reported Ratchet Effects that lowered productivity. The altered incentive plan offered higher compensation for increased sales...

Drawing on a single large U.S. corporation's personnel records for the years 1989-93, the authors analyze an example of the kind of formal salary system used by most large firms. They find that this firm's practices were consistent with most of the important conclusions of prior empirical...

The IT revolution has had dramatic effects on jobs and the labor market. Many routine manual and cognitive tasks have been automated, replacing workers. By contrast, new technologies complement and create new non-routine cognitive and social tasks, making work in such tasks more productive, and...

Prior authors note that investor distraction during Fridays and some holidays leads to muted responses to earnings surprises. We develop daily investor distraction measures using abnormal U.S. air traffic to proxy for investor distraction. These measures provide additional predictive information...

Using personnel and analytics data from over 10,000 skilled professionals at a large Asian IT services company, we compare productivity before and during the work from home [WFH] period of the Covid-19 pandemic. Total hours worked increased by roughly 30%, including a rise of 18% in working...