Journal
SCANDINAVIAN JOURNAL OF ECONOMICS
Volume 114, Issue 4, Pages 1346-1367Publisher
WILEY
DOI: 10.1111/j.1467-9442.2012.01730.x
Keywords
Effort comparisons; gift exchange; pay comparisons; reciprocity; social comparisons; A13; C92; J31
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In this paper, we investigate how social comparison information about referent others (i.e., learning what similar others do, and how they are treated) affects reciprocal relationships. Using three-person gift-exchange games, we study how employees reciprocity towards an employer is affected by pay comparison information (what co-workers earn) and effort comparison information (how co-workers perform). We find strong evidence of the effects of effort comparison: employees are more willing to reciprocate by choosing high effort in response to a high wage if they observe others doing so. In our setting, we find somewhat weaker evidence of the effects of pay comparison.
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