Losing prosociality in the quest for talent? Sorting, selection, and productivity in the delivery of public services

Nava Ashraf, Oriana Bandiera, Edward Davenport and Scott Lee

LSE Research Online Documents on Economics from London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library

Abstract: We embed a field experiment in a nationwide recruitment drive for a new health care position in Zambia to test whether career benefits attract talent at the expense of prosocial motivation. In line with common wisdom, offering career opportunities attracts less prosocial applicants. However, the trade-off exists only at low levels of talent; the marginal applicants in treatment are more talented and equally prosocial. These are hired, and perform better at every step of the causal chain: they provide more inputs, increase facility utilization, and improve health outcomes including a 25 percent decrease in child malnutrition.

JEL-codes: D82 J24 M54 O15 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 40 pages
Date: 2020-05-05
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-exp and nep-hrm
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (55)

Published in American Economic Review, 5, May, 2020, 110(5), pp. 1355 - 1394. ISSN: 0002-8282

Downloads: (external link)
http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/101422/ Open access version. (application/pdf)

Related works:
Journal Article: Losing Prosociality in the Quest for Talent? Sorting, Selection, and Productivity in the Delivery of Public Services (2020)
Working Paper: Losing prosociality in the quest for talent? Sorting, selection, and productivity in the delivery of public services (2018)
Working Paper: Losing Prosociality in the Quest for Talent? Sorting, Selection, and Productivity in the Delivery of Public Services (2014)
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ehl:lserod:101422

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in LSE Research Online Documents on Economics from London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library LSE Library Portugal Street London, WC2A 2HD, U.K.. Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by LSERO Manager ().