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Author: Oyer, Paul
Resulting in 2 citations.
1. Oyer, Paul
Salary or Benefits?
NBER Working Paper No. 11817, National Bureau of Economic Research, 2005.
Also: http://www.nber.org/papers/w11817.pdf
Cohort(s): NLSY79
Publisher: National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER)
Keyword(s): Benefits; Child Care; Firm Size; Firms; Insurance, Health; Modeling

Employer-provided benefits are a large and growing share of compensation costs. In this paper, I consider three factors that can affect the value created by employer-sponsored benefits. First, firms have a comparative advantage (for example, due to scale economies or tax treatment) in purchasing relative to employees. This advantage can vary across firms based on size and other differences in cost structure. Second, employees differ in their valuations of benefits and it is costly for workers to match with firms that offer the benefits they value. Finally, some benefits can reduce the marginal cost to an employee of extra working time. I develop a simple model that integrates these factors. I then generate empirical implications of the model and use data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth to test these implications. I examine access to employer-provided meals, child-care, dental insurance, and health insurance. I also study how benefits are grouped together and differences between benefits packages at for-profit, not-for-profit, and government employers. The empirical analysis provides evidence consistent with all three factors in the model contributing to firms' decisions about which benefits to offer.
Bibliography Citation
Oyer, Paul. "Salary or Benefits?" NBER Working Paper No. 11817, National Bureau of Economic Research, 2005.
2. Oyer, Paul
Schaefer, Scott
Litigation Costs and Returns to Experience
American Economic Review 92,3 (June 2002): 683-705.
Also: http://www.aeaweb.org/articles.php?doi=10.1257/00028280260136318
Cohort(s): NLSY79
Publisher: American Economic Association
Keyword(s): Current Population Survey (CPS) / CPS-Fertility Supplement; Discrimination; Discrimination, Employer; Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO)

Permission to reprint the abstract has not been received from the publisher.

We develop a model linking maximum damage awards available to plaintiffs in wrongful termination lawsuits, workers' propensity to sue as a function of experience, and returns to experience. Using Equal Employment Opportunity Commission data on protected-worker discrimination complaints and labor-market data from the Current Population Survey, we examine how returns to experience among protected workers changed around the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1991. We show that employers' reactions to employment protections may induce redistributive effects. Furthermore, these effects operate not merely across groups of differing protected status, but also within groups of identical protected status.
Bibliography Citation
Oyer, Paul and Scott Schaefer. "Litigation Costs and Returns to Experience." American Economic Review 92,3 (June 2002): 683-705.