Working more for more and working more for less: Labor supply in the gain and loss domains

We examine the response of labor supply to short-run wage changes with and without a reference wage (RW) that we manipulate experimentally. We find that, in the absence of RW, labor supply increases monotonically with wage. In contrast, when RW is present, people work more both when wages rise and fall relative to RW. These findings suggest a kink in the labor-supply curve, consistent with income targeting by loss-averse individuals. However, the effects of income targeting are sensitive to context: in a treatment where wages could either rise or fall relative to RW, the kink in the labor-supply curve disappears.