Combining 'Real Effort' with Induced Effort Costs: The Ball-Catching Task

Simon Gächter, Lingbo Huang () and Martin Sefton ()
Additional contact information
Lingbo Huang: University of Nottingham
Martin Sefton: University of Nottingham

No 9041, IZA Discussion Papers from Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)

Abstract: We introduce the "ball-catching task", a novel computerized real effort task, which combines “real” efforts with induced material cost of effort. The central feature of the ball-catching task is that it allows researchers to manipulate the cost of effort function as well as the production function, which permits quantitative predictions on effort provision. In an experiment with piece-rate incentives we find that the comparative static and the point predictions on effort provision are remarkably accurate. We also present experimental findings from three classic experiments, namely, team production, gift exchange and tournament, using the task. All of the results are closely in line with the stylized facts from experiments using purely induced values. We conclude that the ball-catching task combines the advantages of real effort with induced values, which is useful for theory-testing purposes as well as for applications.

Keywords: online real effort experiments; tournaments; experimental design; real effort task; induced values; piece-rate theory; incentives; team incentives; gift exchange (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C91 C92 J41 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 41 pages
Date: 2015-05
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-cbe, nep-cta, nep-exp and nep-hrm
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (11)

Published - revised version published in: Experimental Economics, 2016, 19, 687–712

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Related works:
Journal Article: Combining “real effort” with induced effort costs: the ball-catching task (2016)
Working Paper: Combining "Real Effort" with Induced Effort Costs: The Ball-Catching Task (2015)
Working Paper: Combining "Real Effort" with Induced Effort Costs: The Ball-Catching Task (2015)
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