cover_review-of-economics-and-statistics.jpg

Paying Outsourced Labor: Direct Evidence from Linked Temp Agency-Worker-Client Data

We estimate how much firms differentiate pay premia between regular and outsourced workers in temp agency work arrangements. We leverage unique Argentinian administrative data that feature links between user firms (the workplaces where temp workers perform their labor) and temp agencies (their formal employers). We estimate that a high-wage user firm that pays a regular worker a 10% premium pays a temp worker on average only a 4.9% premium, compared to what these workers would earn in a low-wage user firm in their respective work arrangements—the midpoint between the benchmarks for insiders (one) and the competitive spot-labor market (zero).

01. January 2023

Authors Andres Drenik Simon Jäger Pascuel Plotkin Benjamin Schoefer

Whom to contact

For Researchers

Professor Benjamin Schoefer, PhD
Professor Benjamin Schoefer, PhD
Economist

If you have any further questions please contact me.

Request per E-Mail

For Journalists

Mitglied der Leibniz-Gemeinschaft LogoTotal-Equality-LogoSupported by the BMWK