Adverse Effects of Contol: Evidence from a Field Experiment

Holger Herz and Christian Zihlmann

No 8890, CESifo Working Paper Series from CESifo

Abstract: We conduct a field experiment with remote workers to causally assess the impact of introducing a control mechanism on performance, and analyse the incidence of potential effects across tasks of different difficulty. We find that the implementation of control significantly reduces performance. The reduction occurs primarily among challenging tasks, whereas performance among simple tasks is unaffected. Further, the effects are primarily driven by workers with non-pecuniary motivation when uncontrolled. Our findings suggest that the relative importance of high performance among challenging tasks for employer profits can be a crucial determinant of the overall profitability of control interventions.

Keywords: control; hidden costs of control; remote work; field experiment (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C93 D21 J24 M50 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-exp and nep-lma
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ces:ceswps:_8890

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