Supervisor Heterogeneity: An Analysis Of Uk Microdata

Abstract

We investigate the attributes of supervisors and the key correlates of the extent of their supervisory responsibilities. We find a strong correlation between wages, education, experience, firm size and the extent of supervision. One implication of this is that firms may be indifferent between employing a few, ‘high responsibility’ or many ‘low responsibility’ supervisors. Our findings, suggestive as they are of supervisory heterogeneity, should be taken into account in studies that proxy the intensity of monitoring primarily by the number of supervisors employed.