Hostname: page-component-76fb5796d-2lccl Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-25T10:35:28.328Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Non-Wage Labour Costs and Productivity Shifts in an Efficiency-Wage-Hours Model

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  17 August 2016

Jan Beyer Schmidt-Sørensen
Jan Beyer Schmidt-Sørensen*
Affiliation:
Aarhus School of Business
Get access

Summary

The efficiency-wage-hours model allows for efficiency effects from both wages and working hours. It is shown that it is essential for static-comparative results to distinguish between working hours per worker and the number of workers in an efficiency-wage-hours model contrary to the basic efficiency-wage model. The wage rate and working hours increase with increasing non-wage labour costs while the employment level decreases. This yields the possibility to influence these variables by means of government action. There does not only exist an efficiency wage but also an efficiency working time. Both are invariant with respect to changes in productivity.

Résumé

Résumé

Le modèle de salaire et durée d'efficience étudie l'impact du salaire et de la durée du travail sur l'efficience. On montre qu'il est déterminant pour les résultats de statique comparative de distinguer entre les heures de travail par individu et le nombre de travailleurs, ce qui n'est pas possible dans le modèle traditionnel de salaire d'efficience. Le taux de salaire et la durée du travail augmentent lorsque les coût non salariaux du travail augmentent, tandis que le niveau de l'emploi diminue. En conséquence le gouvernement a la possibilité d'influer sur ces variables. Il n'y a donc pas seulement un salaire efficient mais une durée efficiente du travail, tous deux insensibles aux variations de la productivité.

Keywords

821821
Type
Research Article
Information
Recherches Économiques de Louvain/ Louvain Economic Review , Volume 57 , Issue 2 , 1991 , pp. 205 - 211
Copyright
Copyright © Université catholique de Louvain, Institut de recherches économiques et sociales 1991 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

(*)

This paper constitutes a part of my Ph.D dissertation. I am grateful to two anonymous referees for helpful suggestions. I also thank T. M. Andersen and P. J. Pedersen for their comments.

References

REFERENCES

Akerlof, G. A. and Yellen, J. L. (1986), Introduction, in: Akerlof, G. A. and Yellen, J. L., eds., Efficiency wage models of the labor market, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Fitzroy, F. R. (1988), Efficiency-wage contracts, worksharing and unemployment, Wissenschaftszentrum Berlin.Google Scholar
Greenwald, B. and Stiglitz, J. E. (1988), Pareto inefficiency of market economies: Search and efficiency wage models, American Economic Review, Papers and Proceedings, 78, 351–355.Google Scholar
Greenwald, B. and Stiglitz, J. E. (1989), Towards a theory of rigidities, American Economic Review, Papers and Proceedings, 79, 364–369.Google Scholar
Hamermesh, D. S. (1988), The demand for workers and hours and the effects of job security policies: Theory and evidence, in: Hart, R. A., ed., Employment, unemployment and labor utilization, London, Unwin Hyman.Google Scholar
Hart, R. A. (1984), The economics of non-wage labour costs, London, George Allen & Unwin.Google Scholar
Hoel, M. (1990), Efficiency wages and income taxes, Journal of Economics, 51, 89–99.Google Scholar
Katz, L. F. (1986), Efficiency wage theories: A partial evaluation, NBER Macroeconomic Annual, 1, 235–275.Google Scholar
Lindbeck, A. and Snower, D. J. (1987), Efficiency wages versus insiders and outsiders, European Economic Review, 31, 407–416.Google Scholar
Schmidt-Sørensen, J. B. (1990), The equilibrium effort-wage elasticity in efficiency wage models, Economics Letters, 32, 365–369.Google Scholar
Schmidt-Sørensen, J. B. (1991), An efficiency-wage-hours model and shorter working hours, Scottish Journal of Political Economy, 38, forthcoming.Google Scholar
Stiglitz, J. E. (1987a), The causes and consequences of the dependence of quality on price, Journal of Economic Literature, 25, 1–48.Google Scholar
Stiglitz, J. E. (1987b), The wage-productivity hypothesis: Its economic consequences and policy implications for L.D.Cs, in: Boskin, M., ed., Modern developments in public finance: Essays in honor of Arnold Harberger, London, Basil Blackwell.Google Scholar