Motivating gig workers – evidence from a field experiment

Sebastian Butschek, Roberto González Amor, Patrick Kampkötter and Dirk Sliwka

Labour Economics, 2022, vol. 75, issue C

Abstract: We study the role of risk aversion and intrinsic motivation in how the payment scheme affects the performance of an online platform’s freelancers. Our RCT varied whether freelancers were only paid a pure sales commission or a lower commission combined with a fixed payment per order to provide insurance against income fluctuations. We do not find evidence for effect heterogeneity with respect to risk aversion, but sizeable heterogeneity with respect to intrinsic motivation: While – in line with standard theory – the treatment reduced performance for less intrinsically motivated workers, it increased performance among workers with a high task motivation.

Keywords: Incentives; Risk aversion; Intrinsic motivation; Sales compensation; Multitasking; Field experiment; Gig economy; On demand economy; Platform economy (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D23 J33 M52 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
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:labeco:v:75:y:2022:i:c:s0927537121001408

DOI: 10.1016/j.labeco.2021.102105

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