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TAKING EFFORT SERIOUSLY
Author(s) -
Currie Martin,
Steedman Ian
Publication year - 1993
Publication title -
metroeconomica
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.256
H-Index - 29
eISSN - 1467-999X
pISSN - 0026-1386
DOI - 10.1111/j.1467-999x.1993.tb00755.x
Subject(s) - simple (philosophy) , variable (mathematics) , expression (computer science) , meaning (existential) , representation (politics) , mathematical economics , wage , epistemology , principal (computer security) , positive economics , economics , computer science , philosophy , mathematics , law , political science , market economy , mathematical analysis , politics , programming language , operating system
This paper examines the typical treatment of “effort” by both efficiency‐wage theorists and principal‐agent theorists. These theorists do not justify regarding effort as a cardinal variable. Yet, if effort is an ordinal variable, certain assumptions which are routinely invoked are literally devoid of meaning. Indeed, the precise expression of a complicated truth cannot possibly take a simple form, however precise‐looking the simple formula might be. A formal expression can be extremely precise without being at all a precise representation of the underlying concept to be captured.