Collaborative Research: It's Not (Just) About the Money

在这个研究项目中，PI将进行实验室实验，以检验他们做好事的愿望。作为工作的内在动机。这些实验涉及一种新的激励性游戏设置，即工人的努力不会让雇主受益--S的利润--反而会让第三方受益：一个贫困的个人、一群这样的人或一种公共利益。这些实验测试了激励契约(要求、奖励和惩罚)在这些环境下对生产率的影响，并评估了外部奖励对内在动机的短期和长期挤出的可能性。该项目的灵感来自经济学理论的最新发展。经济学关注的是工资提供的外在动机，它弥补了工作的无效性，而社会心理学家和教育心理学家则研究内在动机，即对工作本身的内在兴趣。这项研究的主要发现是，经济回报排挤了内在动机。包含非金钱动机的经济理论？比如自尊、身份和地位？结论是，具有内在动力的工人的薪酬将涉及较小的基于激励的支付。这在一定程度上是因为可能会被挤出，但另外，低工资将申请者池限制在那些对组织估值最高的员工身上？S使命。虽然理论包含了一系列广泛的内在动机，但大多数实验研究都集中在代理人和委托人之间的互惠关系上。在基于信任或礼物交换的实验中，高工资会引发工人的高努力，但涉及监督和制裁的激励合同的引入强烈挤出了这种内在的互惠。工人的工作环境在哪里？S努力生产？好吗？对于雇主以外的其他人来说，以前没有进行过测试。然而，其他动机，如利他主义，可能会极大地影响工作场所的努力选择，特别是当工作涉及正外部性或其他形式的做好事时。在这些情况下，激励性合同可能会像理论所说的那样排挤行善的欲望，或者实际上可能会加强内在动机。在现实世界中，以外在方式改变雇佣合同是困难或不可能的，这使得实验室实验成为解决这一问题的理想方法。更广泛的意义和重要性：就更广泛的影响而言，这项研究将阐明工人动机和雇佣合同结构之间的相互作用。在决定接受雇用或代表雇主作出努力时，工人不仅考虑到金钱补偿，还考虑到工作类型和组织的使命。这个项目关注的是非金钱因素是工作的关键方面的环境，个人不仅选择做好工作，还选择做好工作。但也？做得很好。？许多重要组织的存在是为了让第三方受益，当它们能够吸引和激励支持其使命的员工时，它们的效率最高。我们的工作有助于促进促进利他主义和工人之间的合作的机构的发展，这些工人为一项事业而工作，而不仅仅是为了钱。在科学层面上，我们的工作有助于理解非金钱动机对各种环境下个人决策的影响。该项目还实施和评价了一个指导部分，该部分采用了一种新颖的结构，为各级青年学者，从本科生到博士后学者，提供了宝贵的协作研究经验。

In this research project, the PIs will conduct laboratory experiments that examine the desire to ?do good? as an intrinsic motive for working. The experiments involve a new incentivized game setting where worker effort, instead of benefitting an employer?s profit, instead benefits a third party: a needy individual, a group of such individuals, or a public good. The experiments test the effects of incentive contracts (requests, rewards, and punishment) on productivity in these settings, and assess the potential for short-run and long-run crowding out of intrinsic motivation by extrinsic rewards.This project is inspired by recent developments in economic theory. Economics is concerned with the extrinsic motivation provided by wages, which compensates for the disutility of work, while social and educational psychologists study intrinsic motivation, an inherent interest in the work itself. The prevailing finding of this research is that financial rewards crowd out intrinsic motivation. Economic theory that incorporates nonpecuniary motives ? such as self-esteem, identity, and status ? concludes that the compensation of intrinsically motivated workers will involve smaller incentive-based payments. This occurs in part because of the potential for crowding out, but in addition, low wages serve to limit the applicant pool to workers whose valuation of the organization?s mission is highest. While theory incorporates a broad set of intrinsic motives, most experimental research has focused on reciprocity between the agent and the principal. In experiments based on trust or gift-exchange, high wages elicit high effort on the part of workers, but the introduction of incentive contracts that involve monitoring and sanctions robustly crowds out such intrinsic reciprocity. Work environments where the worker?s effort produces a ?good? for someone other than the employer have not been tested previously. However, other motivations, such as altruism, may greatly impact effort choices in the workplace, particularly when the job involves positive externalities or some other form of ?doing good.? In these cases, incentive contracts may crowd out the desire to do good, as theory suggests, or may indeed reinforce intrinsic motivation. Exogenously changing employment contracts in the real world is difficult or impossible, making laboratory experiments an ideal method to address this issue. Broader significance and importance: In terms of broader impacts, the research will shed light on the interaction between worker motivation and the structure of employment contracts. When deciding to accept employment or exert effort on behalf of an employer, workers take into account not only the monetary compensation, but also the type of work and the mission of the organization. This project focuses on settings where nonpecuniary factors are key aspects of the job, and individuals make choices not only about ?doing well,? but also ?doing good.? Many important organizations exist to benefit third parties, and are most effective when they can attract and motivate workers who support their missions. Our work contributes to the development of institutions that foster altruism and cooperation among workers who work for a cause, and not just for the money. On a scientific level, our work contributes to understanding the impact of non-pecuniary motivations on decision making by individuals in a wide variety of settings. The project also implements and evaluates a mentoring component, which utilizes a novel structure and provides a valuable collaborative research experience to young scholars at all levels, from undergraduate students to post-doctoral scholars.