Do more productive firms pay workers more? Evidence from Egypt.

Theoretically, in perfectly competitive markets with full information, marginal productivity of labor and workers’ wages should be equalized across firms and wages should not be linked to the productivity of a firm. Empirically examining the relationship between wages and productivity across various types of firms can reveal important deviations from perfect competition and full information. This paper investigates the wage-productivity relationship in the case of Egypt. We find that wages are related to firm productivity, even after accounting for worker quality. The relationship between wages, productivity, and firm characteristics suggests that the association is due in part to imperfect competition and in part to the use of efficiency wages by employers.