Question
It is costly for an employee to put in full effort at work. The cost of full effort is C. The employee is tempted to
It is costly for an employee to put in full effort at work. The cost of full effort is C. The employee is tempted to shirk, in which case they only face the effort cost of (1 - S)*C, where S is the degree of shirking the employee chooses, expressed as a decimal between 0 and 1.
To incentivize the worker not to shirk, the firm offers an efficiency wage; that is, the employee receives a wage WH from the firm whereas the competitive wage the employee could earn elsewhere is WL.
The firm does random monitoring and the probability that the employee is found shirking and is fired is equal to its level of shirking squared: prob(fired) = S2.
Assume the employee is risk-neutral and maximizes the expected wage net of effort costs. If the employee is fired they earn the competitive wage without any additional cost of effort.
If the cost of full effort is C = 20, the efficiency wage is WH = 100, and the competitive wage is WL = 50, what level of shirking does the employee choose?
Hint: The employee's payoff is their expected wage, net of effort costs. Form an equation for the payoff and maximize with respect to S.
Express your answer in decimal form with two decimal places.
Step by Step Solution
There are 3 Steps involved in it
Step: 1
Get Instant Access to Expert-Tailored Solutions
See step-by-step solutions with expert insights and AI powered tools for academic success
Step: 2
Step: 3
Ace Your Homework with AI
Get the answers you need in no time with our AI-driven, step-by-step assistance
Get Started