Worker Surveillance Capital, Labour Share and Productivity

Philippe Askenazy

No 13950, IZA Discussion Papers from Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)

Abstract: This paper proposes a basic model with two types of capital: productive capital directly involved in the production process and capital devoted to monitoring workers. Surveillance capital intensifies workers' job strain, while wage recognition encourages their engagement. Firms face a double trade-off between the two types of capital and between incentives and labour costs. Under simple assumptions, up to a certain threshold, technological innovation improves productivity, wages and profits at the same pace, leading to a at labour share in income. Then, once the threshold is breached, profit-maximization initiates a transfer from productive capital to monitoring tools. This progressive shift generates a decline in the labour share and a productivity slowdown, despite greater job strain. The model suggests the possibility of a third phase in which productivity and wages recover.

Keywords: effort-reward imbalances; productivity slowdown; declining labour share; surveillance (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: J20 J30 O33 O40 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 20 pages
Date: 2020-12
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-cwa and nep-eff
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Published - published in: Oxford Economic Papers, 2022, 74 (1), 85–93

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Related works:
Journal Article: Worker surveillance capital, labour share, and productivity (2022)
Working Paper: Worker surveillance capital, labour share and productivity (2022)
Working Paper: Worker surveillance capital, labour share and productivity (2020)
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