Abstract
This paper investigates physiological responses to perceptions of unfair pay. We use an integrated approach that exploits complementarities between controlled laboratory and representative panel data. In a simple principal-agent experiment, agents produce revenue by working on a tedious task. Principals decide how this revenue is allocated between themselves and their agents. Throughout the experiment we record agents' heart rate variability, which is an indicator of stress-related impaired cardiac autonomic control and which has been shown to predict coronary heart disease in the long run. Our findings establish a link between unfair payment and heart rate variability. Building on these findings, we further test for potential adverse health effects of unfair pay using observational data from a large representative panel data set. Complementary to our experimental findings we show a strong and significant negative association between unfair pay and health outcomes, in particular cardiovascular health.
Item Type: | Journal article |
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Keywords: | experiments;fairness;health;heart rate variability;inequality;social preferences;SOEP |
Faculties: | Economics |
Subjects: | 300 Social sciences > 300 Social sciences, sociology and anthropology 300 Social sciences > 330 Economics |
ISSN: | 0025-1909 |
Language: | English |
Item ID: | 68611 |
Date Deposited: | 29. Aug 2019, 12:27 |
Last Modified: | 04. Nov 2020, 13:51 |