Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/27206 
Year of Publication: 
2008
Series/Report no.: 
Diskussionsbeitrag No. 396
Publisher: 
Leibniz Universität Hannover, Wirtschaftswissenschaftliche Fakultät, Hannover
Abstract: 
Drawing on recent research on allometric scaling and energy consumption, the present paper develops a nutrition-based efficiency wage model from first principles. The biologically micro-founded model allows us to address empirical criticism of the original nutrition-based efficiency wage model. By extending the model with respect to heterogeneity in worker body size and a physiologically founded impact of body size on productivity, we demonstrate that the nutrition-based efficiency wage model is compatible with the empirical regularity that taller workers simultaneously earn higher wages and are less likely to be unemployed in less developed economies. The theory also provides an answer to the question of why such regularity may disappear in the process of development.
Subjects: 
Efficiency Wages
Nutrition, Metabolism
Allometric Scaling
Body Size
JEL: 
O11
O15
J21
J31
Document Type: 
Working Paper

Files in This Item:
File
Size
202.07 kB





Items in EconStor are protected by copyright, with all rights reserved, unless otherwise indicated.