This paper presents results from a field experiment conducted to analyze
whether gift exchange between employers and workers - a phenomenon in
which when employers pay higher wages than the market average, workers
reciprocate by making more work efforts than the minimum requirement -
exists in the Korean labor market, and if so how long it persists. The results
from analyzing the basic data generated, using various methods, indicate that
the effect of the gift treatment on work efforts is significantly positive, which
is consistent with the gift exchange theory and the results from the previous
experiments conducted abroad. However, there is a difference from the
literature in that the gift treatment effect emerges with some time lag in our
experiment. This result may be caused by the subjects of our experiment
having little experience of labor markets or by the lack of chances to create
emotional bonds with the employer.