Incentives, Commitments, and Habit Formation in Exercise: Evidence from a Field Experiment with Workers at a Fortune-500 Company

Heather Royer, Mark Stehr and Justin Sydnor

American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, 2015, vol. 7, issue 3, 51-84

Abstract: Financial incentives have shown strong positive short-run effects for problematic health behaviors that likely stem from time inconsistency. However, the effects often disappear once incentive programs end. This paper analyzes the results of a large-scale workplace field experiment to examine whether self-funded commitment contracts can improve the long-run effects of an incentive program. A four week incentive program targeting use of the company gym generated only small lasting effects on behavior. Those that also offered a commitment contract at the end of the program, however, showed demand for commitment and significant long-run changes, detectable even several years after the incentive ended. (JEL D03, I10, J32)

JEL-codes: D03 I10 J32 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2015
Note: DOI: 10.1257/app.20130327
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (146)

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Working Paper: Incentives, Commitments and Habit Formation in Exercise: Evidence from a Field Experiment with Workers at a Fortune-500 Company (2012)
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