<p>I unfortunately only know one (but very fine) paper, which estimates efficiency wages implicitly (it could also represent trade-union monopoly power, as both notions are quite difficult to identify separately):</p>
<p>Sabien Dobbelaere and Jacques Mairesse, 2013, &quot;Panel Data Estimates of the Production Function and Product and Labor Market Imperfections&quot;, <em>Journal of Applied Econometrics</em>, 28, 1-46.</p>
<p>See also its list of references.</p>
<p><strong>Edit</strong>: I almost forgot to mention that there is a quite large experimental economics literature on efficiency wages (and related topics on conflicting incentives), see for instance:<br />
Charness, G., R. Cobo-Reyes, N. Jimenez, J. A. Lacomba, and F. Lagos, 2012, &quot;The hidden advantage of delegation: Pareto improvements in a gift exchange game,&quot; <em>American Economic Review</em>, 102, 2358-79.</p>

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2021-12-02T12:47:26.383Z
2021-12-04T14:50:17.980Z
2021-12-04T14:50:17.980Z
Bertrand
<p>In one answer in this <a href="https://economics.stackexchange.com/questions/208/whatever-happened-to-efficiency-wage-theories">great discussion on efficiency wages</a> it is claimed the reason that efficiency wages fell out of fashion is that we can't measure it in normal data. I agree that it is difficult to work on this, but disagree that it is impossible. I know some papers that do and would like to open this thread to crowdsource further examples of papers that do manage to answers empirical questions related to efficiency wages using observational data. Having examples of papers that do this might help to know what kind of data and design is needed to tackle this.</p>
<p>Here is the start:</p>
<p><a href="https://www-jstor-org.proxy.bnl.lu/stable/2534911?pds=2122021123921197848276915600097663&amp;seq=1#metadata_info_tab_contents" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Raff, D. M., &amp; Summers, L. H. (1987). Did Henry Ford pay efficiency wages?. journal of Labor Economics, 5(4, Part 2), S57-S86.</a></p>
<p><a href="https://academic.oup.com/qje/article-abstract/106/3/769/1920456?redirectedFrom=fulltext" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Cappelli, P., &amp; Chauvin, K. (1991). An interplant test of the efficiency wage hypothesis. The Quarterly Journal of Economics, 106(3), 769-787.</a></p>
<p>This is maybe more related to reference-dependent wages but the approach is still relevant
<a href="https://academic.oup.com/qje/article-abstract/112/2/407/1870919" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Camerer, C., Babcock, L., Loewenstein, G., &amp; Thaler, R. (1997). Labor supply of New York City cabdrivers: One day at a time. The Quarterly Journal of Economics, 112(2), 407-441.</a></p>

<labor-economics><empirical-methods>
Examples efficiency wage papers using observational data
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# Examples efficiency wage papers using observational data

(Asked by: username_0 on 2021-12-02)

In one answer in this [great discussion on efficiency wages](https://economics.stackexchange.com/questions/208/whatever-happened-to-efficiency-wage-theories) it is claimed the reason that efficiency wages fell out of fashion is that we can't measure it in normal data. I agree that it is difficult to work on this, but disagree that it is impossible. I know some papers that do and would like to open this thread to crowdsource further examples of papers that do manage to answers empirical questions related to efficiency wages using observational data. Having examples of papers that do this might help to know what kind of data and design is needed to tackle this.

Here is the start:

[Raff, D. M., & Summers, L. H. (1987). Did Henry Ford pay efficiency wages?. journal of Labor Economics, 5(4, Part 2), S57-S86.](https://www-jstor-org.proxy.bnl.lu/stable/2534911?pds=2122021123921197848276915600097663&seq=1#metadata_info_tab_contents)

[Cappelli, P., & Chauvin, K. (1991). An interplant test of the efficiency wage hypothesis. The Quarterly Journal of Economics, 106(3), 769-787.](https://academic.oup.com/qje/article-abstract/106/3/769/1920456?redirectedFrom=fulltext)

This is maybe more related to reference-dependent wages but the approach is still relevant
[Camerer, C., Babcock, L., Loewenstein, G., & Thaler, R. (1997). Labor supply of New York City cabdrivers: One day at a time. The Quarterly Journal of Economics, 112(2), 407-441.](https://academic.oup.com/qje/article-abstract/112/2/407/1870919)

**Tags:** labor-economics, empirical-methods


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## 1 answers

### Answer by username_1 on 2021-12-02. Score: 3 | Accepted answer

I unfortunately only know one (but very fine) paper, which estimates efficiency wages implicitly (it could also represent trade-union monopoly power, as both notions are quite difficult to identify separately):

Sabien Dobbelaere and Jacques Mairesse, 2013, "Panel Data Estimates of the Production Function and Product and Labor Market Imperfections", *Journal of Applied Econometrics*, 28, 1-46.

See also its list of references.

**Edit**: I almost forgot to mention that there is a quite large experimental economics literature on efficiency wages (and related topics on conflicting incentives), see for instance:  
Charness, G., R. Cobo-Reyes, N. Jimenez, J. A. Lacomba, and F. Lagos, 2012, "The hidden advantage of delegation: Pareto improvements in a gift exchange game," *American Economic Review*, 102, 2358-79.


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