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We investigate whether giving workers autonomy through delegation of contract choice intrinsically motivates effort. In a novel laboratory experiment that controls for contract preferences and outcomes, principals can either choose the contract under which agents work on a real-effort task, or delegate the contract choice to the agents. We evaluate whether agents exert higher effort when they are allowed to choose the contract versus when the contract is imposed on them. We find no difference between the two conditions, even after controlling for baseline ability and for locus of control. Because our design excludes the possibility that preferences play a role, and because workers engaged in a real-effort task, this result casts doubt on an intrinsic link between the autonomy granted through delegation and the motivation of employees in the workplace. Our results do not deny, however, the possible instrumental benefits of autonomy (which did not play a role in our design) and their potentially powerful impact on motivation.

This chapter introduces a model of efficiency-wage competition along the lines put forward by Hahn (1987). Specifically, I analyze a two-firm economy in which employers screen their workforce by means of increasing wage offers competing one another for high-quality employees. The main results are the following. First, using a specification of effort such that the problem of firms is well-behaved, optimal wage offers are strategic complements. Second, the symmetric Nash equilibrium can be locally stable under the assumption that firms adjust their wage offers in the direction of increasing profits by conjecturing that any wage offer above (below) equilibrium will lead competitors to underbid (overbid) such an offer. Finally, the exploration of possible labor market equilibria reveals that effort is counter-cyclical.

This chapter is aimed at filling two important gaps in the large literature on high-involvement work system (HIWS). First, the existing literature tends to focus on North America and Western Europe, and detailed information on HIWS outside of the two regions (especially Asia) is still limited. Second, while there is a large body of quantitative evidence, the literature is relatively scant on detailed account of exactly how specific HIWS practices are implemented in the real workplace. This chapter draws on our extensive field research at firms in Japan, the United States, and Korea, and presents real-world examples of HIWS of firms in Japan, Korea, and the United States. Our detailed account of the implementation of HIWS in the three countries points to an intriguing process of transnational diffusion of HIWS. Japanese firms as early experimenters of HIWS posed a challenge to U.S. firms in the global marketplace, resulting in the trans-pacific diffusion of HIWS which is modified to the U.S. corporate culture. Due to its geographical proximity and historical connections to Japan, Korean firms were initially heavily influenced by Japanese HIWS. However, with the rising link to the United States and Europe, Japanese influence appears to have been waning, and interest in U.S. style HIWS and European-style state-mandated works council has risen, suggesting that a hybrid model may be emerging in Korea.

This paper investigates the links between statistical discrimination, mobility, tenure, and wage profiles in the early career of workers. The model assumes that female workers’ productivity is noisier and that the noise/signal ratio tapers off more rapidly for male workers. These two assumptions yield numerous theoretical predictions pertaining to gender wage gaps. These predictions are tested using data from the 1979 cohort of the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth. As predicted, we find that men and women have the same wage at the start of their career, but that female wages grow at a slower rate thus generating a gender wage gap.

This study aims to examine the relationship between mentorship, innovation and entrepreneurship performance in Africa’s largest economy. This study argues that mentorship and innovation play significant roles in driving entrepreneurship performance in the country. It explores the impact of mentorship on entrepreneurial development, including the transmission of knowledge, skills and networks.

This study analyzes the role of innovation in fostering entrepreneurial growth and competitiveness, particularly in the context of Nigeria, Africa’s largest economy. The authors engaged data obtained from the Youth Enterprise with Innovation (2019) and made use of the propensity score matching.

The findings suggest that effective mentorship programs and innovative approaches can enhance entrepreneurial performance, promote economic growth and contribute to sustainable development in Nigeria, Africa’s largest economy.

The literature on entrepreneurship in Africa’s largest economy, Nigeria, has mainly focused on factors such as access to finance, the business environment and government policies, with limited research on the role of mentorship and innovation in entrepreneurship performance. This study contributes to the growing body of literature on entrepreneurship in Nigeria, particularly on the role of mentorship and innovation in entrepreneurship performance.

This paper aims to examine and compare the associations between financial capability and financial anxiety (FA) before and during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. Specifically, financial capability is measured by three indicators: financial knowledge, financial behavior and financial confidence. This study also examines and compares the association among different income groups before and during the pandemic.

Data are from 2018 to 2021 National Financial Capability Study (NFCS). Structural equation modeling (SEM) is employed to examine the direct and indirect associations between financial capability factors and FA. Furthermore, this paper also conducts multi-group SEM for three income groups to examine the heterogeneous effects of household income.

Both before and during the pandemic, financial knowledge is directly positively and financial behavior is directly negatively associated with FA. In addition, both financial knowledge and financial behavior are positively associated with financial confidence, which in turn is negatively associated with FA. However, when taking the indirect effects into consideration, the total effects of financial capability factors on FA are all negative. Furthermore, the pandemic has intensified the negative association between financial behavior and FA rather than financial knowledge or financial confidence. Multi-group SEM shows that the positive direct effects of financial knowledge are only significant in the low-income group, while the negative direct effects of financial behavior are only significant in the low- and middle-income groups before the pandemic. However, direct effects of financial knowledge and financial behavior are significant in all income groups during the pandemic.

First, this study specifies a construct, financial confidence, to proxy perceived financial capability. Second, it examines the mediating role of financial confidence in the association between the other two financial capability factors (financial knowledge and financial behaviors) and FA. Third, it also compares the associations between financial capability factors and FA before and during the COVID-19 pandemic.

This paper aims to explore the effects of fiscal policy in an economy with efficiency wages, consumption taxes and a common income tax rate.

A dynamic general-equilibrium model with the government sector is calibrated to Bulgarian data (1999–2018). Two regimes are compared and contrasted – the exogenous (observed) vs optimal policy (Ramsey) case.

The main findings are as follows: (1) The optimal steady-state income tax rate is zero. (2) The benevolent Ramsey planner provides three times lower amount of the utility-enhancing public services. (3) The optimal steady-state consumption tax needed to finance the optimal level of government spending is 18.7%.

The focus of the paper is on the relative importance of consumption vs income taxation, as well as on the provision of utility-enhancing public services. Bulgarian economy was chosen as a case study due to its major dependence on consumption taxation as a source of tax revenue.

The peer review history for this article is available at: https://publons.com/publon/10.1108/IJSE-08-2021-0488.

This study aims to investigate the heterogeneous results about the impact of temporary jobs on subsequent labour market performances and to provide policymakers with further information on the effects of temporary contracts under particular circumstances.

The authors present a quantitative systematic review on the debate about the “stepping stone vs dead end” hypothesis related to the causal effect of temporary jobs on future labour market performances.

Among 78 observations from 64 articles, 32% support the hypothesis according to which temporary contracts are a port of entry into stable employment positions, 23% report ambiguous or mixed findings and the remaining 45% provide evidence in favour of the dead end hypothesis. The results from meta-regressions suggest that the stepping stone effect is more likely to emerge when self-selectivity issues are dealt with. The studies focussing on temporary work agency jobs and casual/seasonal jobs support more easily the dead end hypothesis. Finally, in more recent years and when the unemployment rate is larger, the dead end hypothesis is more likely to prevail.

Although many studies have been published on this issue, to the best of the authors’ knowledge, there are no recent analytic economic surveys on the “stepping stone vs dead end” debate. The main contribution of this article is to fill this gap.

This paper explores the effects of fiscal policy in an economy with reciprocity in labor relations and fair wages, consumption taxes and a common income tax rate in place.

To this end, a dynamic general-equilibrium model with government sector is calibrated to Bulgarian data (1999–2018). Two regimes are compared and contrasted – the exogenous (observed) vs optimal policy (Ramsey) case. The focus of the paper is on the relative importance of consumption vs income taxation, as well as on the provision of utility-enhancing public services. Bulgarian economy was chosen as a case study due to its major dependence on consumption taxation as a source of tax revenue.

(1) The optimal steady-state income tax rate is zero; (2) the benevolent Ramsey planner provides the optimal amount of the utility-enhancing public services, which are now three times lower; (3) the optimal steady-state consumption tax needed to finance the optimal level of government spending is 18:7%.

This is the first study on optimal fiscal policy with reciprocity in labor relations.