Cassar, Lea and Meier, Stephan (2021) Intentions for Doing Good Matter for Doing Well: The Negative Effects of Prosocial Incentives. ECONOMIC JOURNAL, 131 (637). pp. 1988-2017. ISSN 0013-0133, 1468-0297
Full text not available from this repository. (Request a copy)Abstract
Many firms consider prosocial initiatives to be an effective tool to motivate workers. However, despite some initial supportive evidence, little is known about when and how prosocial incentives work. Our field experiment shows that the instrumental use of prosocial incentives to increase effort can backfire. The negative effect is particularly strong for performance-based prosocial incentives, which are, by construction, more instrumental than unconditional incentives, and for the workers who do not care about the charitable cause. These findings highlight some serious limitations of prosocial incentives: firms' perceived intentions and the pool of employees will be crucial for their effectiveness.
| Item Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Uncontrolled Keywords: | CORPORATE SOCIAL-RESPONSIBILITY; PRIVATE PROVISION; GIFT EXCHANGE; HIDDEN COSTS; RECIPROCITY; FIELD; FAIRNESS; MARKETS; WORK; PAY |
| Subjects: | 300 Social sciences > 330 Economics |
| Divisions: | Business, Economics and Information Systems > Institut für Volkswirtschaftslehre und Ökonometrie > Lehrstuhl für Empirische Wirtschaftsforschung - Prof. Lea Cassar |
| Depositing User: | Dr. Gernot Deinzer |
| Date Deposited: | 25 Aug 2022 06:33 |
| Last Modified: | 25 Aug 2022 06:33 |
| URI: | https://pred.uni-regensburg.de/id/eprint/46998 |
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