Social Incentives Matter: Evidence from an Online Real Effort Experiment

Mirco Tonin and Michael Vlassopoulos

No 6716, IZA Discussion Papers from Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)

Abstract: Contributing to a social cause can be an important driver for workers in the public and non-profit sector as well as in firms that engage in Corporate Social Responsibility activities. This paper compares the effectiveness of social incentives to financial incentives using an online real effort experiment. We find that social incentives lead to a 20% rise in productivity, regardless of their form (lump sum or related to performance) or strength. When subjects can choose the mix of incentives half sacrifice some of their private compensation to increase social compensation, with women more likely than men. Furthermore, social incentives do not attract less productive subjects, nor subjects that respond more to exogenously imposed social incentives. Our calculations suggest that a dollar spent on social incentives is equivalent to increasing private compensation by at least half a dollar.

Keywords: social incentives; private incentives; real effort experiment; corporate social responsibility; gender; prosocial behavior; sorting (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D64 J24 J32 L3 M14 M52 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 38 pages
Date: 2012-07
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-bec, nep-cbe, nep-evo, nep-exp, nep-hrm and nep-soc
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (12)

Published - substantially revised version published as 'Corporate Philanthropy and Productivity: Evidence from an Online Real Effort Experiment' in: Management Science, 2015, 61(8), 1795-1811

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https://docs.iza.org/dp6716.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
Journal Article: Do Social Incentives Matter? Evidence from an Online Real Effort Experiment (2013)
Working Paper: Social Incentives Matter: Evidence from an Online Real Effort Experiment (2013)
Working Paper: Social Incentives Matter: Evidence from an Online Real Effort Experiment (2013)
Working Paper: Social Incentives Matter: Evidence from an Online Real Effort Experiment (2012)
Working Paper: Social Incentives Matter: Evidence from an Online Real Effort Experiment (2012)
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