Your success is my motivation

Prateik Dalmia and Emel Filiz-Ozbay

Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, 2021, vol. 181, issue C, 49-85

Abstract: We study how an individuals effort choice is impacted by feedback on her own past performance and another individuals past performance. In an effort choice problem where effort is costly but increases the chance of receiving a prize, subjects who failed in the previous period increase their effort in the next period – behavior consistent with failure aversion. More interestingly, failed subjects who observe that their partner succeeded exert higher effort in the next period than failed subjects who observe that their partner also failed – behavior consistent with behindness aversion. This effect is more pronounced for female subjects than male subjects, suggesting that failing women are more motivated by the success of others than failing men. Rather than letting subjects work in isolation, we find that the highest joint effort can be achieved by matching failed and successful subjects into pairs and providing feedback about the others performance.

Keywords: Effort choice; Feedback; Social comparison; Risk evaluation; Gender (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D81 D91 J16 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:jeborg:v:181:y:2021:i:c:p:49-85

DOI: 10.1016/j.jebo.2020.11.025

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