A bioeconomic foundation for the nutrition-based efficiency wage model

Arbeitspapier

Drawing on recent research on allometric scaling and energy consumption, the present paper develops a nutrition-based efficiency wage model from first principles. The biologically micro-founded model allows us to address empirical criticism of the original nutrition-based efficiency wage model. By extending the model with respect to heterogeneity in worker body size and a physiologically founded impact of body size on productivity, we demonstrate that the nutrition-based efficiency wage model is compatible with the empirical regularity that taller workers simultaneously earn higher wages and are less likely to be unemployed in less developed economies. The theory also provides an answer to the question of why such regularity may disappear in the process of development.

Object Details

• Language: Englisch

References and Relationships

• Bibliographic citation: Series: Diskussionsbeitrag ; No. 396

Classification and Topics

• Classification: Wirtschaft ; Macroeconomic Analyses of Economic Development ; Economic Development: Human Resources; Human Development; Income Distribution; Migration ; Labor Force and Employment, Size, and Structure ; Wage Level and Structure; Wage Differentials
• Subject: Efficiency Wages ; Nutrition, Metabolism ; Allometric Scaling ; Body Size ; Effizienzlohn ; Ernährung ; Lebensstandard ; Bioökonomik ; Theorie

Contributors, Places and Time

• Event: Geistige Schöpfung
• (who): Dalgaard, Carl-Johan ; Strulik, Holger
• Event: Veröffentlichung
• (who): Leibniz Universität Hannover, Wirtschaftswissenschaftliche Fakultät
• (where): Hannover
• (when): 2008

Further information

• Handle: http://hdl.handle.net/10419/27206
• Last update: 10.03.2025, 11:43 AM CET