IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/pra/mprapa/14050.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

The Conceptual Roots of Work Effort in Pre-classical and Classical Economic Thought

Author

Listed:
  • Drakopoulos, Stavros A.
  • Karayiannis, Anastassios

Abstract

In modern literature, the concept of work effort is used as an additional explanation of involuntary unemployment. In particular, it is assumed that higher wages have a positive effect on work effort and this is the fundamental point of the efficiency wage models of involuntary unemployment. However, as it is often the case, the concept of the workers' effort was not new but it was an idea that can be found in the works of a number of pre-classical and classical economists. This paper discusses the conceptual roots of the idea from the late 17th until the middle of the 19th centuries. For instance, there is evidence of the connection between wages, work effort and consumption in the works of North, Hume, Steuart, Smith, Young, Crumpe, Ricardo, Senior, McCulloch, Babbage, Longfield, J.S. Mill and others. The paper also assesses the similarities and differences of their views with current approaches to work effort.

Suggested Citation

  • Drakopoulos, Stavros A. & Karayiannis, Anastassios, 2006. "The Conceptual Roots of Work Effort in Pre-classical and Classical Economic Thought," MPRA Paper 14050, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    • Handle: RePEc:pra:mprapa:14050
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://mpra.ub.uni-muenchen.de/14050/1/MPRA_paper_14050.pdf
    File Function: original version
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Layard, Richard & Nickell, Stephen & Jackman, Richard, 2005. "Unemployment: Macroeconomic Performance and the Labour Market," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780199279173, Decembrie.
    2. Yellen, Janet L, 1984. "Efficiency Wage Models of Unemployment," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 74(2), pages 200-205, May.
    3. Leibenstein, Harvey, 1978. "General X-Efficiency Theory and Economic Development," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780195023800.
    4. Solow, Robert M., 1979. "Another possible source of wage stickiness," Journal of Macroeconomics, Elsevier, vol. 1(1), pages 79-82.
    5. M. G. Marshall, 2000. "Luxury, Economic Development, and Work Motivation: David Hume, Adam Smith, and J. R. McCulloch," History of Political Economy, Duke University Press, vol. 32(3), pages 631-648, Fall.
    6. Shapiro, Carl & Stiglitz, Joseph E, 1984. "Equilibrium Unemployment as a Worker Discipline Device," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 74(3), pages 433-444, June.
    7. A. W. Coats, 1958. "Changing Attitudes To Labour In The Mid-Eighteenth Century," Economic History Review, Economic History Society, vol. 11(1), pages 35-51, August.
    8. Drakopoulos, S. A. & Karayiannis, A. D., 2004. "The Historical Development of Hierarchical Behavior in Economic Thought," Journal of the History of Economic Thought, Cambridge University Press, vol. 26(3), pages 363-378, September.
    9. Davide Fiaschi & Rodolfo Signorino, 2003. "Consumption patterns, development and growth: Adam Smith, David Ricardo and Thomas Robert Malthus," The European Journal of the History of Economic Thought, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 10(1), pages 5-24.
    10. Anthony Brewer, 1998. "Luxury and Economic Development: David Hume and Adam Smith," Scottish Journal of Political Economy, Scottish Economic Society, vol. 45(1), pages 78-98, February.
    11. Malcomson, James M, 1981. "Unemployment and the Efficiency Wage Hypothesis," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 91(364), pages 848-866, December.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Uwe Blien & Susanne Messmann & Mark Trappmann, 2012. "Do reservation wages react to regional unemployment?," ERSA conference papers ersa12p662, European Regional Science Association.
    2. Drakopoulos, Stavros A. & Karayiannis, Anastassios, 2007. "The Paradox of Happiness: Evidence from the Late Pre-Classical and Classical Economic Thought," MPRA Paper 71657, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    3. Goldsmith, Arthur H. & Veum, Jonathan R. & Darity, William Jr., 2000. "Working hard for the money? Efficiency wages and worker effort," Journal of Economic Psychology, Elsevier, vol. 21(4), pages 351-385, August.
    4. Sami Bibi, 2003. "On The Impact of Labor Tax Reforms on Unemployment in Tunisia," Working Papers 0330, Economic Research Forum, revised Oct 2003.
    5. Michelle Alexopoulos, 2003. "Growth and unemployment in a shirking efficiency wage model," Canadian Journal of Economics/Revue canadienne d'économique, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 36(3), pages 728-746, August.
    6. Jean‐François Fagnart & Marc Germain & Bruno Van der Linden, 2023. "Working time reduction and employment in a finite world," Scandinavian Journal of Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 125(1), pages 170-207, January.
    7. Bamikole, Oluwafemi, 2013. "The Impact of Minimum Wage on Average Earnings in the Caribbean using Two-Selected Countries, Trinidad and Tobago and Jamaica (1980-2011 and 1997-2011)," MPRA Paper 57363, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    8. Masclet, David & Montmarquette, Claude & Viennot-Briot, Nathalie, 2019. "Can whistleblower programs reduce tax evasion? Experimental evidence," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 83(C).
    9. Franz, Wolfgang, 1993. "Unvollkommene Arbeitsmärkte in makroökonomischen Modellen: Eine Übersicht," Discussion Papers 1, University of Konstanz, Center for International Labor Economics (CILE).
    10. Jinpeng Ma, 2004. "Jobless Recovering and Equilibrium Involuntary Unemployment with a Simple Efficiency Wage Model," Departmental Working Papers 200404, Rutgers University, Department of Economics.
    11. Altman, Morris, 2006. "Involuntary unemployment, macroeconomic policy, and a behavioral model of the firm: Why high real wages need not cause high unemployment," Research in Economics, Elsevier, vol. 60(2), pages 97-111, June.
    12. Juin-jen Chang & Chia-ying Liu & Hsiao-wen Hung, 2013. "Does Performance-Based Compensation Boost Economic Growth or Lead to More Income Inequality?," The Economic Record, The Economic Society of Australia, vol. 89(284), pages 72-82, March.
    13. Marco Guerrazzi, 2010. "Nominal Wage Indexation, Quasi‐Equilibria And Real Wage Dynamics," Bulletin of Economic Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 62(3), pages 279-294, July.
    14. Bhattacharyya, Chandril & Gupta, Manash Ranjan, 2020. "Union, Efficiency of Labour and Endogenous Growth," Hitotsubashi Journal of Economics, Hitotsubashi University, vol. 61(2), pages 170-202, December.
    15. Danthine, Jean-Pierre & Kurmann, Andre, 2006. "Efficiency wages revisited: The internal reference perspective," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 90(2), pages 278-284, February.
    16. Jean‐Pierre Danthine & André Kurmann, 2007. "The Macroeconomic Consequences of Reciprocity in Labor Relations," Scandinavian Journal of Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 109(4), pages 857-881, December.
    17. Goerke, Laszlo, 1999. "Value-added Tax versus Social Security Contributions," IZA Discussion Papers 55, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    18. Hélène Zajdela, 1990. "Le dualisme du marché du travail : enjeux et fondements théoriques," Économie et Prévision, Programme National Persée, vol. 92(1), pages 31-42.
    19. Kiley, Michael T., 1997. "Efficiency wages, nominal rigidities and the cyclical behavior of real wages and marginal cost," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 56(2), pages 215-221, October.
    20. repec:zbw:bofrdp:2009_001 is not listed on IDEAS
    21. William T. Dickens & Kevin Lang, 1992. "Labor Market Segmentation Theory: Reconsidering the Evidence," NBER Working Papers 4087, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    work effort; wage rate; pre-classical thought; classical thought;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • B12 - Schools of Economic Thought and Methodology - - History of Economic Thought through 1925 - - - Classical (includes Adam Smith)
    • B11 - Schools of Economic Thought and Methodology - - History of Economic Thought through 1925 - - - Preclassical (Ancient, Medieval, Mercantilist, Physiocratic)
    • J20 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - General

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:pra:mprapa:14050. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Joachim Winter (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/vfmunde.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.