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Fairness, Adverse Selection, and Employment Contracts

Author

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  • Siemens, Ferdinand von
Abstract
This paper considers a firm whose potential employees have private information on both their productivity and the extent of their fairness concerns. Fairness is modelled as inequity aversion, where fair-minded workers suffer if their colleagues get more income net of production costs. Screening workers with equal productivity but different fairness concerns is shown to be impossible if both types are to be employed, thereby rendering the optimal employment contracts discontinuous in the fraction of fair-minded workers. As a result, fairness might infuence the employment contracts of all workers although only some are fair-minded, and identical firms facing very similar pools of workers might employ very different remuneration schemes.

Suggested Citation

  • Siemens, Ferdinand von, 2005. "Fairness, Adverse Selection, and Employment Contracts," Discussion Papers in Economics 669, University of Munich, Department of Economics.
    • Handle: RePEc:lmu:muenec:669
    as

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    File URL: https://epub.ub.uni-muenchen.de/669/1/AdverseMunich.pdf
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    References listed on IDEAS

    as
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    Citations

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    Cited by:

    1. Kangsik Choi, 2012. "Envy and pricing of quality in adverse selection," Journal of Economics, Springer, vol. 106(1), pages 27-43, May.
    2. Ramarao Desiraju & David E. M. Sappington, 2007. "Equity and Adverse Selection," Journal of Economics & Management Strategy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 16(2), pages 285-318, June.
    3. Dominique Demougin & Claude Fluet & Carsten Helm, 2006. "Output and wages with inequality averse agents," Canadian Journal of Economics/Revue canadienne d'économique, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 39(2), pages 399-413, May.
    4. Kangsik Choi, 2014. "A Note On Pricing Of Product Quality For Status Concerns," Bulletin of Economic Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 66(4), pages 333-345, October.
    5. Zhang, De-Peng & Yang, Chen-hui & Zhang, Feng-Hua, 2014. "Analysis of the equity preference influence in customer participation incentives," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 41(C), pages 1-8.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Fairness; Employment Contracts; Adverse Selection; Screening; Heterogeneity in Organizational Form;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • C70 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Game Theory and Bargaining Theory - - - General
    • D21 - Microeconomics - - Production and Organizations - - - Firm Behavior: Theory
    • D42 - Microeconomics - - Market Structure, Pricing, and Design - - - Monopoly
    • D63 - Microeconomics - - Welfare Economics - - - Equity, Justice, Inequality, and Other Normative Criteria and Measurement
    • D82 - Microeconomics - - Information, Knowledge, and Uncertainty - - - Asymmetric and Private Information; Mechanism Design
    • J31 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Wages, Compensation, and Labor Costs - - - Wage Level and Structure; Wage Differentials

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