IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/fep/journl/v4y1991i1p2-9.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The effects of risk on efficient labor contracts

Author

Listed:
  • Noel Gaston

    (Tulane University)

  • Randall Wright

    (University of Pennsylvania and Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis)

Abstract

We analyze the effects of productivity risk on the expected utility of workers under efficient labor contracts. With multiplicative uncertainty in productivity, an increase in risk increases workers' expected utility, holding expected profit constant, as has been shown by Rosen. With a technology that is concave in both labor and the productivity shock, however, the opposite is true. We also study the effects of risk on wages, employment and hours, and characterize the dependence of these effects on the curvature of the marginai productivity schedule.

Suggested Citation

  • Noel Gaston & Randall Wright, 1991. "The effects of risk on efficient labor contracts," Finnish Economic Papers, Finnish Economic Association, vol. 4(1), pages 2-9, Spring.
    • Handle: RePEc:fep:journl:v:4:y:1991:i:1:p:2-9
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://taloustieteellinenyhdistys.fi/images/stories/fep/f1991_1a.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. John M. Abowd & Orley C. Ashenfelter, 1981. "Anticipated Unemployment, Temporary Layoffs, and Compensating Wage Differentials," NBER Chapters, in: Studies in Labor Markets, pages 141-170, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    2. Rosen, Sherwin, 2007. "Studies in Labor Markets," National Bureau of Economic Research Books, University of Chicago Press, number 9780226726304, December.
    3. Rothschild, Michael & Stiglitz, Joseph E., 1970. "Increasing risk: I. A definition," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 2(3), pages 225-243, September.
    4. Jean-Jacques Laffont, 1989. "The Economics of Uncertainty and Information," MIT Press Books, The MIT Press, edition 1, volume 1, number 0262121360, December.
    5. Topel, Robert H, 1984. "Equilibrium Earnings, Turnover, and Unemployment: New Evidence," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 2(4), pages 500-522, October.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Assaad, Ragui & Tunali, Insan, 2002. "Wage formation and recurrent unemployment," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 9(1), pages 17-61, February.

    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. Rosen, Sherwin, 1985. "Implicit Contracts: A Survey," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 23(3), pages 1144-1175, September.
    2. Emilia Del Bono & Andrea Weber, 2008. "Do Wages Compensate for Anticipated Working Time Restrictions? Evidence from Seasonal Employment in Austria," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 26(1), pages 181-221.
    3. Assaad, Ragui & Tunali, Insan, 2002. "Wage formation and recurrent unemployment," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 9(1), pages 17-61, February.
    4. Ben-Nasr, Hamdi, 2019. "Do unemployment benefits affect the choice of debt source?11I would like to acknowledge the financial support from Qatar University, QUUG-CBE-DFE-17/18-6," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 56(C), pages 88-107.
    5. Agrawal, Ashwini K. & Matsa, David A., 2013. "Labor unemployment risk and corporate financing decisions," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 108(2), pages 449-470.
    6. Patricia M. Anderson & Bruce D. Meyer, "undated". "The Incidence of a Firm-Varying Payroll Tax: The Case of Unemployment Insurance," IPR working papers 95-23, Institute for Policy Resarch at Northwestern University.
    7. Carol Taylor West, 1993. "The Problem of Unemployment in the United States: A Survey of 60 Years of National and State Policy Initiatives," International Regional Science Review, , vol. 16(1-2), pages 17-47, April.
    8. Timothy E. Dore & Rebecca Zarutskie, 2017. "Firm Leverage, Labor Market Size, and Employee Pay," Finance and Economics Discussion Series 2017-078, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (U.S.).
    9. Lewis M. Segal & Daniel G. Sullivan, 1998. "Wage differentials for temporary services work: evidence from administrative data," Working Paper Series WP-98-23, Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago.
    10. Timothy E. Dore & Rebecca Zarutskie, 2018. "Firm Leverage, Labor Market Size, and Employee Pay," Working Papers 18-36, Center for Economic Studies, U.S. Census Bureau.
    11. Akyol, Ali C. & Verwijmeren, Patrick, 2013. "Human capital costs, firm leverage, and unemployment rates," Journal of Financial Intermediation, Elsevier, vol. 22(3), pages 464-481.
    12. Hagen, Tobias, 2001. "Do temporary workers receive risk-premiums? Assessing the wage effects of fixed-term contracts in West-Germany by matching estimators compared with parametric apporaches," ZEW Discussion Papers 01-71, ZEW - Leibniz Centre for European Economic Research.
    13. repec:eee:labchp:v:1:y:1986:i:c:p:641-692 is not listed on IDEAS
    14. Patricia M. Anderson & Bruce D. Meyer, 1994. "The Effects of Unemployment Insurance Taxes and Benefits on Layoffs Using Firm and Individual Data," NBER Working Papers 4960, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    15. David A. Matsa, 2018. "Capital Structure and a Firm’s Workforce," NBER Working Papers 25125, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    16. Joseph G. Altonji & Christina H. Paxson, 1992. "Labor Supply, Hours Constraints, and Job Mobility," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 27(2), pages 256-278.
    17. Ana Paula Martins, 2008. "Uninsurable Risks: Uncertainty in Production, the Value of Information and Price Dispersion," Economics Bulletin, AccessEcon, vol. 28(8), pages 1.
    18. John R. Graham & Hyunseob Kim & Si Li & Jiaping Qiu, 2019. "Employee Costs of Corporate Bankruptcy," NBER Working Papers 25922, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    19. Pinheiro, Roberto & Visschers, Ludo, 2015. "Unemployment risk and wage differentials," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 157(C), pages 397-424.
    20. White, Lucy, 2006. "Prudence in Bargaining: The Effect of Uncertainty on Bargaining Outcomes," CEPR Discussion Papers 5822, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    21. Florian S. Peters & Alexander F. Wagner, 2014. "The Executive Turnover Risk Premium," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 69(4), pages 1529-1563, August.

    More about this item

    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:fep:journl:v:4:y:1991:i:1:p:2-9. 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: Editorial Secretary (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/talouea.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.