Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/121374 
Year of Publication: 
2015
Series/Report no.: 
SFB/TR 15 Discussion Paper No. 504
Publisher: 
Sonderforschungsbereich/Transregio 15 - Governance and the Efficiency of Economic Systems (GESY), München
Abstract: 
Recent laboratory evidence suggests that personality traits, in particular social preferences, may affect contractual outcomes under moral hazard. Using the British Workplace Employment Relations Survey 2004 we find that behaviour of employers and employees is consistent with the presence of gift-exchange motives: firms that screen applicants for personality are less likely to pay low wages and more likely to provide (non-pecuniary) benefits. Firms likewise benefit from employee screening as they can implement more team-working and are generally more successful. Other human resource management practices only poorly predict these patterns. Moreover, there is no association between dismissals and personality tests, indicating that personality tests do not merely improve the fit between applicant and employer. Hence, we conclude that motivation based on gift-exchange motives is a plausible explanation for our results.
Subjects: 
Reciprocity
Organisational Structure
Employee Compensation
JEL: 
D22
M52
Persistent Identifier of the first edition: 
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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