Was There Really a Hawthorne Effect at the Hawthorne Plant? An Analysis of the Original Illumination Experiments

Steven Levitt and John List

American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, 2011, vol. 3, issue 1, 224-38

Abstract: The "Hawthorne effect" draws its name from a landmark set of studies conducted at the Hawthorne plant in the 1920s. The data from the first and most influential of these studies, the "Illumination Experiment," were never formally analyzed and were thought to have been destroyed. Our research has uncovered these data. Existing descriptions of supposedly remarkable data patterns prove to be entirely fictional. We do find more subtle manifestations of possible Hawthorne effects. We also propose a new means of testing for Hawthorne effects based on excess responsiveness to experimenter- induced variations relative to naturally occurring variation. (JEL C90, J24, J28, M12, M54, N32)

JEL-codes: C90 J24 J28 M12 M54 N32 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2011
Note: DOI: 10.1257/app.3.1.224
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (76)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.aeaweb.org/articles.php?doi=10.1257/app.3.1.224 (application/pdf)
http://www.aeaweb.org/aej/app/data/2009-0343_data.zip (application/zip)
http://www.aeaweb.org/aej/app/app/2009-0343_app.pdf (application/pdf)
Access to full text is restricted to AEA members and institutional subscribers.

Related works:
Working Paper: Was there Really a Hawthorne Effect at the Hawthorne Plant? An Analysis of the Original Illumination Experiments (2009)
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:aea:aejapp:v:3:y:2011:i:1:p:224-38

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.aeaweb.org/journals/subscriptions

Access Statistics for this article

American Economic Journal: Applied Economics is currently edited by Alexandre Mas

More articles in American Economic Journal: Applied Economics from American Economic Association Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Michael P. Albert ().