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16:00 - 18:00 2 March 2011
No Margin, No Mission? A Field Experiment on Incentives in the Social Sector
Location
Ricardo Lecture Theatre |
Drayton House
(
Map)
30 Gordon Street |
London |
WC1H 0AN |
United Kingdom
Open to:
Academic |
Student
Ticketing: Open
Speaker information
Oriana Bandiera, Professor of Economics, LSE
Deparmental Seminar
Abstract
A substantial body of research investigates the design of incentives in firms, yet less is known about incentives in organizations that hire individuals to perform tasks that have positive social spillovers. We conduct a randomized field experiment in Zambia in which four different groups of agents are offered four different compensation packages to perform the same task for a public health organization. The compensation treatments include a standard volunteer contract, a low-powered financial reward scheme, a high-powered financial reward scheme, and a symbolic reward scheme. Evidence shows that agents in the symbolic reward treatment substantially outperform all other treatments. Across treatments, intrinsic motivation is a strong determinant of performance. However, contrary to existing laboratory evidence, financial incentives reinforce, rather than crowd out, intrinsic motivation.
Contact
Department of Economics - Reception
020 7679 5888 |
