Don't Forget the Gravy! Are Bonuses Just Added on Top of Salaries?
利用英国代表性数据，研究发现奖金在横截面分析中看似不替代工资，但面板数据控制个体特征后，奖金部分替代其他收入，每1英镑奖金对应40便士其他收入减少，且替代程度在收入底层远大于顶层。
The press often depicts bonuses as extra payments to the already well compensated and calls for reform. Yet, these calls typically ignore the efficiency argument that bonuses are potentially risky performance pay that substitute for salary compensation. This paper uses representative UK data to estimate that bonuses appear not to substitute for salary in cross‐sectional estimates. Yet, when controlling for time‐invariant characteristics in panel data, bonuses emerge as partial substitutes. Each pound of bonus comes at a cost of 40 pence in other earnings. The degree of substitution is far larger at the bottom of the earnings distribution and far smaller at the top of the earnings distribution where, indeed, bonuses look more like gravy.