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Intra-Firm Wage Dispersion and Firm Performance

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Author Info
Winter-Ebmer, Rudolf
Zweimuller, Josef

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Abstract

Personnel economics has put forward conflicting arguments concerning the impact of increased wage dispersion within a firm on the productivity of its workers. Besides giving more incentives, bigger wage differentials might also give rise to less co-operation and more politicking amongst workers resulting in worse outcomes. We try to shed light on these issues using panel data for Austrian firms. As indicators for firm performance we use standardised wages. For white-collar wages the following picture emerges: more dispersion leads to higher earnings up to some point where the relation changes its direction. For blue-collar wages we find a positive association between dispersion and standardised wages between firms, but no relation within firms over time. Copyright 1999 by WWZ and Helbing & Lichtenhahn Verlag AG

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Publisher Info
Article provided by Blackwell Publishing in its journal Kyklos.

Volume (Year): 52 (1999)
Issue (Month): 4 ()
Pages: 555-72
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Handle: RePEc:bla:kyklos:v:52:y:1999:i:4:p:555-72

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References listed on IDEAS
Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.:
  1. Baker, George & Gibbs, Michael & Holmstrom, Bengt, 1994. "The Wage Policy of a Firm," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, MIT Press, vol. 109(4), pages 921-55, November. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  2. Edward P. Lazear & Sherwin Rosen, 1981. "Rank-Order Tournaments as Optimum Labor Contracts," NBER Working Papers 0401, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  3. Falkinger, Josef, 1999. "Social instability and redistribution of income," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 15(1), pages 35-51, March. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  4. Ernst FEHR & Simon GÄCHTER & Georg KIRCHSTEIGER, 1994. "Reciprocal Fairness and Noncompensating Wage Differentials," Vienna Economics Papers vie9401, University of Vienna, Department of Economics.
  5. Edward P. Lazear, 1996. "Performance Pay and Productivity," NBER Working Papers 5672, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  6. Agell, Jonas & Lundborg, Per, 1995. " Theories of Pay and Unemployment: Survey Evidence from Swedish Manufacturing Firms," Scandinavian Journal of Economics, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 97(2), pages 295-307, June.
  7. Blanchflower, David G & Oswald, Andrew J & Garrett, Mario D, 1990. "Insider Power in Wage Determination," Economica, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 57(226), pages 143-70, May. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  8. Akerlof, George A & Yellen, Janet L, 1990. "The Fair Wage-Effort Hypothesis and Unemployment," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, MIT Press, vol. 105(2), pages 255-83, May. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  9. Richard B. Freeman, 1982. "Union wage practices and wage dispersion within establishments," Industrial and Labor Relations Review, ILR Review, ILR School, Cornell University, vol. 36(1), pages 3-21, October.
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  10. Hibbs, Douglas A, Jr & Locking, Hakan, 2000. "Wage Dispersion and Productive Efficiency: Evidence for Sweden," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 18(4), pages 755-82, October. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  11. Winter-Ebmer, Rudolf, 1992. "Endogenous Growth, Human Capital, and Industry Wages," CEPR Discussion Papers 714, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  12. Blinder, Alan S & Choi, Don H, 1990. "A Shred of Evidence on Theories of Wage Stickiness," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, MIT Press, vol. 105(4), pages 1003-15, November. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  13. Fichtenbaum, Rudy & Shahidi, Hushang, 1988. "Truncation Bias and the Measurement of Income Inequality," Journal of Business & Economic Statistics, American Statistical Association, vol. 6(3), pages 335-37, July.
  14. Rudolf Winter-Ebmer & Josef Zweimueller, . "Firm Size Wage Differentials in Switzerland: Evidence from Job Changers," IEW - Working Papers iewwp001, Institute for Empirical Research in Economics - IEW. [Downloadable!]
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  15. Lazear, Edward P, 1989. "Pay Equality and Industrial Politics," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 97(3), pages 561-80, June. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  16. Winter-Ebmer, Rudolf & Zweimuller, Josef, 1996. "Immigration and the Earnings of Young Native Workers," Oxford Economic Papers, Oxford University Press, vol. 48(3), pages 473-91, July. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  17. Jonathan S. Leonard, 1990. "Executive pay and firm performance," Industrial and Labor Relations Review, ILR Review, ILR School, Cornell University, vol. 43(3), pages 13-29, February.
  18. Baker, George & Gibbs, Michael & Holmstrom, Bengt, 1994. "The Internal Economics of the Firm: Evidence from Personnel Data," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, MIT Press, vol. 109(4), pages 881-919, November. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  19. Milgrom, Paul R, 1988. "Employment Contracts, Influence Activities, and Efficient Organization Design," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 96(1), pages 42-60, February. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  20. Milgrom, Paul & Roberts, John, 1990. "The Efficiency of Equity in Organizational Decision Processes," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 80(2), pages 154-59, May. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  21. Steven J. Davis & John Haltiwanger, 1995. "Employer Size and The Wage Structure in U.S. Manufacturing," NBER Working Papers 5393, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  22. Blanchflower, David G & Oswald, Andrew J & Sanfey, Peter, 1996. "Wages, Profits, and Rent-Sharing," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, MIT Press, vol. 111(1), pages 227-51, February. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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Cited by:
(explanations, Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.)

  1. Fredrik Heyman, 2005. "Pay inequality and firm performance: evidence from matched employer--employee data," Applied Economics, Taylor and Francis Journals, vol. 37(11), pages 1313-1327, June. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
    Other versions:
  2. Susana Iranzo & Fabiano Schivardi & Elisa Tosetti, 2006. "Skill dispersion and firm productivity: an analysis with employer-employee matched data," Working Paper CRENoS 200617, Centre for North South Economic Research, University of Cagliari and Sassari, Sardinia. [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  3. Christian Grund & Niels Westergaard-Nielsen, 2005. "The Dispersion of Employees' Wage Increases and Firm Performance," Bonn Econ Discussion Papers bgse3_2005, University of Bonn, Germany. [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  4. Bingley, Paul & Eriksson, Tor, 2001. "Pay Spread and Skewness, Employee Effort and Firm Productivity," Working Papers 01-2, University of Aarhus, Aarhus School of Business, Department of Economics. [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  5. Luiz A. Esteves & Pedro S. Martins, 2008. "Is firm performance driven by fairness or tournaments? Evidence from Brazilian matched data," Working Papers 16, Queen Mary, University of London, School of Business and Management, Centre for Globalisation Research. [Downloadable!]
  6. Steve Bradley & Alina Petrescu & Rob Simmons, 2004. "The impacts of human resource management practices and pay inequality on workers' job satisfaction," Working Papers 000276, Lancaster University Management School, Economics Department. [Downloadable!]
  7. Nils Braakmann, 2008. "Intra-firm wage inequality and firm performance – First evidence from German linked employer-employee-data," Working Paper Series in Economics 77, University of Lüneburg, Institute of Economics. [Downloadable!]
  8. Pedro S. Martins, 2008. "Dispersion in Wage Premiums and Firm Performance," Working Papers 8, Queen Mary, University of London, School of Business and Management, Centre for Globalisation Research. [Downloadable!]
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