Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/86555 
Year of Publication: 
2006
Series/Report no.: 
Tinbergen Institute Discussion Paper No. 06-037/1
Publisher: 
Tinbergen Institute, Amsterdam and Rotterdam
Abstract: 
Numerous gift exchange experiments have found a positive relationship between employers' wage offers and workers' effort levels. In (almost) all these experiments the employer both owns and controls the firm. Yet in reality many firms are characterized by the separation of ownership and control. In this paper we explore to what extent this affects the wage-effort relationship observed. We compare the standard bilateral gift exchange game between an owner-manager and a worker with two trilateral ones where the firm is owned by a shareholder and controlled by a manager. The wage-effort relationship we observe is the same in all three situations. Most strikingly, workers still reward higher wages with higher effort levels, even when the manager responsible for choosing the wage does not share in the firm's profits at all. The results of a fourth treatment in which the wage is exogenously given suggest that workers feel reciprocal towards the firm as a whole; both ownership and control are important for the gift exchange relationship.
Subjects: 
Gift exchange
multi-level hierarchy
reciprocity
experimental economics
JEL: 
J41
C91
M52
Document Type: 
Working Paper

Files in This Item:
File
Size
329.37 kB





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