Journal article

The intrinsic value of decision rights

  • 23.12.2014
Published in:
  • Econometrica. - The Econometric Society. - 2014, vol. 82, no. 6, p. 2005-2039
English Philosophers, psychologists, and economists have long argued that certain decision rights carry not only instrumental value but may also be valuable for their own The ideas of autonomy, freedom, and liberty derive their intuitive appeal - partly - from an assumed positive intrinsic value of decision rights. Providing evidence for the existence of this intrinsic value and measuring its size, however, intricate. Here, we develop a method capable of achieving these goals. The data that the large majority of our subjects intrinsically value decision rights beyond their strumental benefit. The intrinsic valuation of decision rights has potentially important consequences for corporate governance, human resource management, and optimal job design: it may explain why managers value power, why employees appreciate with task discretion, why individuals sort into self-employment, and why the realloca- tion of decision rights is often very difficult and cumbersome. Our method and may also prove useful in developing an empirical revealed preference foundation concepts such as "freedom of choice" and "individual autonomy."
Faculty
Faculté des sciences économiques et sociales et du management
Department
Département d'économie politique
Language
  • English
Classification
Economics
License
License undefined
Identifiers
Persistent URL
https://folia.unifr.ch/unifr/documents/306467
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