Hidden benefits of reward: A field experiment on motivation and monetary incentives

Ola Kvaløy, Petra Nieken and Anja Schöttner

European Economic Review, 2015, vol. 76, issue C, 188-199

Abstract: We conducted a field experiment in a controlled work environment to investigate the effect of motivational talk and its interaction with monetary incentives. We find that motivational talk improves performance only when accompanied by performance pay. Moreover, performance pay reduces performance unless it is accompanied by motivational talk. These effects also carry over to the quality of work. Performance pay alone leads to more mistakes. Adding motivational talk makes the difference. In treatments with performance pay, motivational talk increases output by about 20 percent and reduces the ratio of mistakes by more than 40 percent.

Keywords: Verbal motivation; Performance pay; Field experiment (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C93 J33 M52 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2015
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (22)

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Related works:
Working Paper: Hidden Benefits of Reward: A Field Experiment on Motivation and Monetary Incentives (2013)
Working Paper: Hidden Benefits of Reward: A Field Experiment on Motivation and Monetary Incentives (2013)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:eecrev:v:76:y:2015:i:c:p:188-199

DOI: 10.1016/j.euroecorev.2015.03.003

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