Traditionally, researchers have had difficulty testing the relationship between the degree of risk or uncertainty in workers' environments and incentive pay. The authors employ Prendergast's (2002) theory that incorporates the delegation of worker authority into the principal-agent model to...

We present new theory and empirical evidence concerning racial discrimination in promotions. In our model, promotions signal worker ability. When tasks differ substantially across levels of a job hierarchy, the opportunity cost (in terms of foregone output) of not promoting qualified nonwhite...

The authors describe a method of assessing the potential effect of errors in variables in the logit regression model with continuous-valued independent variables. They then apply the method to a model of lending discrimination in which measurement error would bias estimates of discrimination....

The disinflationary episode of the early 1980s was dramatic in the magnitude of the decline in inflation as well as the significant loss of output. Also, the disinflationary policy was announced and carried out over a three-year period. Thus, this episode has the potential to test competing...

Using data from a large cross-section of British establishments, we ask how different firm characteristics are associated with the predicted benefits to organizational performance from using team production. To compute the predicted benefits from using team production, we estimate structural...

We provide a new theory to explain why firms multitask workers rather than specializing them. Workers over-perform in tasks they like and under-perform in tasks they dislike, to favorably influence future job assignments. Anticipating this, firms may find it optimal to commit to future...

Using a large sample of establishments drawn from the Multi-City Study of Urban Inequality (MCSUI) employer survey, we study gender differences in promotion rates and in the wage gains attached to promotions. Several unique features of our data distinguish our analysis from the previous...

There is an increasing number of Collaborative Question Answering (CQA) websites and a growing reliance of the online community on user-generated content. In this paper, we study users' motivation to win social recognition contests (best answers) and how multitasking and flexible hours influence...