In the first study using British data, we show that the average wage advantage of holding a performance pay job is greater for minorities than that for Whites. This generates a smaller ethnic wage gap among performance pay jobs than among time rate jobs. Yet, this pattern is driven by those...

The 1/n problem potentially limits the effectiveness of profit sharing in motivating workers. While the economic literature suggests that reciprocity can mitigate this problem, it remains silent on the optimal degree of reciprocity. We present a representative model demonstrating that...

Past research demonstrates that the estimated size of the federal government earnings differential shrinks substantially with the addition of detailed occupational controls. Possible explanations for this reduction are: controlling for the differing sectoral distributions of common occupations,...

Using data from a 1987 American Medical Association survey of young physicians, the authors investigate how accurately the women in the sample perceived the gender wage discrimination affecting them. Contrary to the conclusion of some studies that women inaccurately perceive gender...

The authors estimate the determinants of five types of variable payment schemes using panel data on German establishments in 1994 and 1996. Women were disproportionately included in schemes based on individual productivity and on profit-sharing, but not in those based on work group productivity....

This paper focuses on the German labor market for older workers. It does so in comparison with other countries and with a unique focus on the role of employer incentives for retaining and hiring older workers. It argues that while employment of older German workers has improved due to changes in...

While performance pay is associated with increased worker productivity and earning, the relative size of the sorting and incentive effects remains in doubt. Resolving this doubt is important as incentive effects imply welfare increases that may be absent in sorting. This paper uses UK labour...

In initial cross-section estimates using data from the 1991-94 British Household Panel Study, the authors find that union members had lower overall job satisfaction than non-union members, and public sector workers had higher satisfaction than private sector workers. Controlling for individual...

A 1996 survey of Hong Kong establishments designed to identify hiring and employment patterns by workers' age shows that, as in the United States, many firms employed older workers but did not hire older workers. This pattern appears to reflect mainly economic forces, rather than public policy,...