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Equal Pay for Unequal Work: Limiting Sabotage in Teams

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  • Arup Bose
  • Debashis Pal
  • David E. M. Sappington

Abstract

We demonstrate the value of “equal pay” policies in teams, even when team members have distinct abilities and make different contributions to team performance. A commitment to compensate all team members in identical fashion eliminates the incentive that each team member otherwise has to sabotage the activities of teammates in order to induce the team owner to implement a more favorable reward structure. The reduced sabotage benefits the team owner, and can secure Pareto gains under plausible circumstances.

Suggested Citation

  • Arup Bose & Debashis Pal & David E. M. Sappington, 2010. "Equal Pay for Unequal Work: Limiting Sabotage in Teams," Journal of Economics & Management Strategy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 19(1), pages 25-53, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:jemstr:v:19:y:2010:i:1:p:25-53
    DOI: 10.1111/j.1530-9134.2009.00244.x
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    1. Björn Bartling & Ferdinand A. von Siemens, 2010. "Equal Sharing Rules in Partnerships," Journal of Institutional and Theoretical Economics (JITE), Mohr Siebeck, Tübingen, vol. 166(2), pages 299-320, June.
    2. Bevia Carmen & Corchón Luis C, 2006. "Rational Sabotage in Cooperative Production with Heterogeneous Agents," The B.E. Journal of Theoretical Economics, De Gruyter, vol. 6(1), pages 1-27, November.
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    1. Björn Bartling & Ferdinand A. von Siemens, 2010. "Equal Sharing Rules in Partnerships," Journal of Institutional and Theoretical Economics (JITE), Mohr Siebeck, Tübingen, vol. 166(2), pages 299-320, June.
    2. Juarez, Ruben & Ko, Chiu Yu & Xue, Jingyi, 2018. "Sharing sequential values in a network," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 177(C), pages 734-779.
    3. Semih Tumen, 2016. "A theory of intra-firm group design," Journal of Productivity Analysis, Springer, vol. 45(1), pages 89-102, February.
    4. Kouroche Vafaï, 2012. "Supervision in Firms," Post-Print halshs-00768900, HAL.
    5. Kouroche Vafaï, 2012. "Supervision in Firms," Documents de travail du Centre d'Economie de la Sorbonne 12084, Université Panthéon-Sorbonne (Paris 1), Centre d'Economie de la Sorbonne.
    6. repec:elg:eechap:15325_9 is not listed on IDEAS
    7. Subhasish Chowdhury & Oliver Gürtler, 2015. "Sabotage in contests: a survey," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 164(1), pages 135-155, July.
    8. David P. Brown & David E. M. Sappington, 2021. "On the profitability of self‐sabotage," Canadian Journal of Economics/Revue canadienne d'économique, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 54(1), pages 68-91, February.
    9. Carlo Bellavite Pellegrini & Raul Caruso & Marco Di Domizio, 2021. "Relative wages, payroll structure and performance in soccer. Evidence from Italian Serie A (2007-2019)," DISCE - Quaderni del Dipartimento di Politica Economica dipe0015, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Dipartimenti e Istituti di Scienze Economiche (DISCE).
    10. Michael T. Rauh, 2014. "Incentives, wages, employment, and the division of labor in teams," RAND Journal of Economics, RAND Corporation, vol. 45(3), pages 533-552, September.
    11. Nana Adrian & Marc M ller, 2019. "Partnerships with Asymmetric Information: The Benefit of Sharing Equally amongst Unequals," Diskussionsschriften dp1904, Universitaet Bern, Departement Volkswirtschaft.
    12. Kouroche Vafaï, 2012. "Supervision in Firms," Université Paris1 Panthéon-Sorbonne (Post-Print and Working Papers) halshs-00768900, HAL.
    13. Conan Mukherjee & Ranojoy Basu & Aftab Alam, 2020. "A measure of authorship by publications," Managerial and Decision Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 41(3), pages 354-361, April.
    14. Kouroche Vafaï, 2012. "Optimal Organization," Economics Bulletin, AccessEcon, vol. 32(1), pages 518-527.
    15. Caruso, Raul & Carlo, Bellavite Pellegrini & Marco, Di Domizio, 2016. "Does diversity in the payroll affect soccer teams’ performance? Evidence from the Italian Serie A," MPRA Paper 75644, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    16. Marco Di Domizio & Carlo Bellavite Pellegrini & Raul Caruso, 2022. "Payroll dispersion and performance in soccer: A seasonal perspective analysis for Italian Serie A (2007–2021)," Contemporary Economic Policy, Western Economic Association International, vol. 40(3), pages 513-525, July.
    17. Deepak Srivastav & Puram Praveen & Rudra Sensarma & Anand Gurumurthy, 2021. "Does salary dispersion affect team performance in cricket? Evidence from the Indian Premier League," Working papers 441, Indian Institute of Management Kozhikode.
    18. J. Atsu Amegashie, 2013. "Sabotage in Contests: An Overview," CESifo Working Paper Series 4422, CESifo.
    19. António Sérgio Ribeiro & Francisco Lima & Sascha Kraus & Ferran Calabuig, 2022. "Tournaments within football teams: players’ performance and wages," Economic Research-Ekonomska Istraživanja, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 35(1), pages 4884-4901, December.
    20. Thomas Hellmann & Noam Wasserman, 2017. "The First Deal: The Division of Founder Equity in New Ventures," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 63(8), pages 2647-2666, August.
    21. Jaesoo Kim & Dongsoo Shin, 2023. "Vertical Relationships with Hidden Interactions," Games, MDPI, vol. 14(6), pages 1-21, October.
    22. Annala, Christopher N. & Winfree, Jason, 2011. "Salary distribution and team performance in Major League Baseball," Sport Management Review, Elsevier, vol. 14(2), pages 167-175, May.
    23. Kräkel, Matthias & Müller, Daniel, 2012. "Sabotage in teams," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 115(2), pages 289-292.

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