Pay Growth, Fairness, and Job Satisfaction: Implications for Nominal and Real Wage Rigidity
利用英国代表性数据，研究发现工人不仅关心工资水平，也关心工资增长；低于中位数的加薪会带来侮辱效应，但若同行实际工资下降或企业产出下滑时该效应减弱，名义降薪即使在企业困难时也令人反感。
Abstract Theories of wage rigidity often rely on a positive relationship between pay changes and utility, arising from concern for fairness or gift exchange. Supportive evidence has emerged from laboratory experiments, but the link has not yet been established with field data. This paper contributes a first step, using representative British data. Workers care about the level and the growth of earnings. Below‐median wage increases lead to an insult effect, except when similar workers have real wage reductions or when firm production is falling. Nominal pay cuts appear to be insulting even when the firm is doing badly.