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Do responsible employers attract responsible employees?

Author

Listed:
  • Karine Nyborg

    (University of Oslo, Norway, and IZA, Germany)

Abstract

Survey and register data indicate that many employees prefer a socially responsible employer and will accept a lower wage to achieve this. Laboratory experiments support the hypothesis that socially responsible groups are more productive than others, partly because they attract cooperative types, partly because initial cooperation is reinforced by group dynamics. Overall, the findings indicate corporate social responsibility may have cost advantages for firms.

Suggested Citation

  • Karine Nyborg, 2014. "Do responsible employers attract responsible employees?," IZA World of Labor, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA), pages 1-17, May.
    • Handle: RePEc:iza:izawol:journl:y:2014:n:17
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    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Fehrler, Sebastian & Kosfeld, Michael, 2014. "Pro-social missions and worker motivation: An experimental study," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 100(C), pages 99-110.
    2. Brekke, Kjell Arne & Hauge, Karen Evelyn & Lind, Jo Thori & Nyborg, Karine, 2011. "Playing with the good guys. A public good game with endogenous group formation," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 95(9-10), pages 1111-1118, October.
    3. Roland Bénabou & Jean Tirole, 2010. "Individual and Corporate Social Responsibility," Economica, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 77(305), pages 1-19, January.
    4. Karine Nyborg & Tao Zhang, 2013. "Is Corporate Social Responsibility Associated with Lower Wages?," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 55(1), pages 107-117, May.
    5. Joseph Lanfranchi & Sanja Pekovic, 2012. "How Green is my Firm? Workers' Attitudes towards Job, Job Involvement and Effort in Environmentally-Related Firms," Working Papers halshs-00744483, HAL.
    6. Hannes Koppel & Tobias Regner, 2012. "Corporate Social Responsibility in the work place - Experimental evidence on CSR from a gift-exchange game," Jena Economics Research Papers 2011-030, Friedrich-Schiller-University Jena.
    7. Gregg, Paul & Grout, Paul A. & Ratcliffe, Anita & Smith, Sarah & Windmeijer, Frank, 2011. "How important is pro-social behaviour in the delivery of public services?," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 95(7), pages 758-766.
    8. Joseph Lanfranchi & Sanja Pekovic, 2012. "How Green is my Firm? Workers' Attitudes towards Job, Job Involvement and Effort in Environmentally-Related Firms," Working Papers halshs-00976341, HAL.
    9. Brekke, Kjell Arne & Nyborg, Karine, 2008. "Attracting responsible employees: Green production as labor market screening," Resource and Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 30(4), pages 509-526, December.
    10. Grolleau, Gilles & Mzoughi, Naoufel & Pekovic, Sanja, 2012. "Green not (only) for profit: An empirical examination of the effect of environmental-related standards on employees’ recruitment," Resource and Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 34(1), pages 74-92.
    11. John O. Okpara & Samuel O. Idowu (ed.), 2013. "Corporate Social Responsibility," CSR, Sustainability, Ethics & Governance, Springer, edition 127, number 978-3-642-40975-2, October.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

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    Cited by:

    1. Laszlo Goerke, 2022. "Trade unions and corporate social responsibility," Annals of Public and Cooperative Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 93(1), pages 177-203, March.
    2. Cassar, Lea & Meier, Stephan, 2017. "Intentions for Doing Good Matter for Doing Well: The (Negative) Signaling Value of Prosocial Incentives," IZA Discussion Papers 11203, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    3. Lea Cassar, 2014. "Job mission as a substitute for monetary incentives: experimental evidence," ECON - Working Papers 177, Department of Economics - University of Zurich.
    4. Patricia Crifo & Marc-Arthur Diaye & Sanja Pekovic, 2022. "Wages and corporate social responsibility: entrenchment or ethics?," Post-Print hal-03897930, HAL.
    5. Laszlo Goerke & Nora Paulus, 2024. "Collective Bargaining about Corporate Social Responsibility," IAAEU Discussion Papers 202401, Institute of Labour Law and Industrial Relations in the European Union (IAAEU).

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    corporate social responsibility (CSR); employee motivation; productivity; wages;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D22 - Microeconomics - - Production and Organizations - - - Firm Behavior: Empirical Analysis
    • D64 - Microeconomics - - Welfare Economics - - - Altruism; Philanthropy; Intergenerational Transfers
    • H41 - Public Economics - - Publicly Provided Goods - - - Public Goods
    • Q52 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Environmental Economics - - - Pollution Control Adoption and Costs; Distributional Effects; Employment Effects

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