The Value of Bosses

Edward P. Lazear; Kathryn L. Shaw; Christopher  Stanton

Article | Journal of Labor Economics | October 2015

The Value of Bosses

by Edward P. Lazear, Kathryn L. Shaw and Christopher Stanton

Abstract

How and by how much do supervisors enhance worker productivity? Using a company-based data set on the productivity of technology-based services workers, supervisor effects are estimated and found to be large. Replacing a boss who is in the lower 10% of boss quality with one who is in the upper 10% of boss quality increases a team's total output by more than would adding one worker to a nine member team. Workers assigned to better bosses are less likely to leave the firm. A separate normalization implies that the average boss is about 1.75 times as productive as the average worker.

Keywords: Management Skills; Performance Productivity;

Format: Print

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Citation:

Lazear, Edward P., Kathryn L. Shaw, and Christopher Stanton. "The Value of Bosses." Journal of Labor Economics 33, no. 4 (October 2015): 823–861.

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The Value of Bosses

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