Volume 38, Number 4 (Fall) 2003

Haley, M. Ryan. 2003. "The Response of Worker Effort to Pierce Rates: Evidence from the Midwest Logging Industry." Journal of Human Resources 38(4):.

Using firm-level payroll data from the Midwest logging industry, I compute a worker's productivity response to a change in piece-rate pay, an elasticity of effort, using an empirical specification developed in Paarsch and Shearer (1999). Maximum-likelihood estimation of an agency-based structural econometric model of worker choice yields elasticities ranging from 0.413 to 1.507. These estimates are smaller than, but qualitatively similar to, those reported in Paarsch and Shearer, suggesting that their model has perhaps more general applicability than their British Columbia tree-planting example.
 

This is a revised version of research contained in his second-year paper submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Ph.D. in the economics department at the University of Iowa. He would like to thank Harry J. Paarsch, Charles H. Whiteman, Bruce Shearer, John Pencavel, and an anonymous referee for their helpful comments and useful suggestions. He is also grateful to Craig Barnes and the many foresters, loggers, and firm representatives who were kind enough to aid in my data-collection efforts. The data used in this article can be obtained beginning April 2004 through March 2007 from M. Ryan Haley, Department of Economics, University of Iowa, Iowa City, Iowa 52242.