When and why incentives (don't) work to modify behavior

Journal of Economic Perspectives

Volumn 25, Issue 4, 2011, Pages 191-210

  Gneezy, Uri ^a   Meier, Stephan ^b   Rey Biel, Pedro ^c  

^a UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA   (United States)

^b The Sanford C Bernstein Co Center for Leadership and Ethics   (United States)

^c UNIVERSITAT AUTÒNOMA DE BARCELONA   (Spain)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EID: 81855180395     PISSN: None     EISSN: 08953309     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: None     Document Type: Article

References (63)

1. Acland, Dan, and Matthew Levy. 2010. "Habit Formation and Naiveté in Gym Attendance: Evidence from a Field Experiment." Unpublished paper.
2. Angrist, Joshua, Eric Bettinger, Erik Bloom, Elizabeth King, and Michael Kremer. 2002. "Vouchers for Private Schooling in Colombia: Evidence from a Randomized Natural Experiment." American Economic Review, 92(5): 1535-58.
3. Angrist, Joshua, Eric Bettinger, and Michael Kremer. 2006. "Long-Term Educational Consequences of Secondary School Vouchers: Evidence from Administrative Records in Colombia." American Economic Review, 96(3): 847-62. (Pubitemid 44273984)
4. Angrist, Joshua, Daniel Lang, and Philip Oreopoulos. 2006. "Incentives and Services for College Achievement: Evidence from a Randomized Trial." American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, 1(1): 136-63.
5. Angrist, Joshua, and Victor Lavy. 2009. "The Effects of High Stakes High School Achievement Awards: Evidence from a Randomized Trial." American Economic Review, 99(4): 1384-1414.
6. Ariely, Dan, Anat Bracha, and Stephan Meier. 2009. "Doing Good or Doing Well? Image Motivation and Monetary Incentives in Behaving Prosocially." American Economic Review, 99(1): 544-55.
7. Ariely, Dan, Uri Gneezy, George Loewenstein, and Nina Mazar. 2009. "Large Stakes and Big Mistakes." Review of Economic Studies, 76(2): 451-69.
8. Ashraf, Nava, Dean Karlan, and Wesley Yin. 2006. "Tying Odysseus to the Mast: Evidence from a Commitment Savings Product in the Philippines." Quarterly Journal of Economics, 121(2): 635-72. (Pubitemid 43668216)
9. Babcock, Philip, and John Hartman. 2010. "Exercising in Herds: Treatment Size and Status Specifi c Peer Effects in a Randomized Exercise Intervention." Unpublished paper.
10. Barrera-Osorio, Felipe, Marianne Bertrand, Leigh L. Linden, and Francisco Perez-Calle. 2008. "Conditional Cash Transfers in Education: Design Features, Peer and Sibling Effects. Evidence from a Randomized Experiment in Colombia." Policy Research Working Paper 4580, Impact Evaluation Series, no. 20, World Bank.
11. Becker, Gary S., and Kevin M. Murphy. 1988. " A Theory of Rational Addiction." Journal of Political Economy, 96(4): 675-700.
12. Behrman, Jere Richard, Piyali Sengupta, and Petra Todd. 2005. "Progressing through PROGRESA: An Impact Assessment of a School Subsidy Experiment." Economic Development and Cultural Change, 54(1): 237-75. (Pubitemid 41622611)
13. Benabou, Roland, and Jean Tirole. 2006. "Incentives and Prosocial Behavior." American Economic Review, 96(5): 1652-78.
14. Berg, Joyce, John Dickhaut, and Kevin McCabe. 1995. "Trust, Reciprocity, and Social History." Games and Economic Behavior, 10(1): 122-42.
15. Bernheim, B. Douglas, and Antonio Rangel. 2004. "Addiction and Cue-Triggered Decision Processes." American Economic Review, 94(5): 1558-90. (Pubitemid 40465227)
16. Betti nger, Eric P. 2010. "Paying to Learn: The Effect of Financial Incentives on Elementary School Test Scores." NBER Working Papers 16333.
17. Bohnet, Iris, Bruno S. Frey, and Steffen Huck. 2001. "More Order With Less Law: On Contract Enforcement, Trust and Crowding." American Political Science Review, 95(1): 131-144.
18. Charness, Gary, and Uri Gneezy. 2009. "Incentives to Exercise." Econometrica, 77(3): 909-31.
19. Cornwell, Christopher, David B. Mustard, and Deepa J. Sridhar. 2006. "The Enrollment Effects of Merit-Based Financial Aid: Evidence from Georgia's HOPE Program." Journal of Labor Economics, 24(4): 761-86. (Pubitemid 44874812)
20. Croson, Rachel, and Uri Gneezy. 2009. "Gender Differences in Preferences." Journal of Economic Literature, 47(2): 1-27.
21. Deci, Edward L., Richard Koestner, and Richard M. Ryan. 1999. "A Meta-analytic Review of Experiments Examining the Effects of Extrinsic Rewards on Intrinsic Motivation." Psychological Bulletin, 125(6): 627-68.
22. DellaVigna, Steffano, and Ulrike Malmendier. 2006. "Paying Not to Go to the Gym." American Economic Review, 96(3): 694-719. (Pubitemid 44273976)
23. de Wit, Harriet, and Luan Phan. 2009. "Positive Reinforcement Theories of Drug Use." In Substance Abuse and Emotion, ed. Jon D. Kassel. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.
24. Donatelle, Rebecca J., Deanne Hudson, Susan Dobie, Amy Goodall, Monica Hunsberger, and Kelly Oswald. 2004. "Incentives in Smoking Cessation: Status of the Field and Implications for Research and Practice with Pregnant Smokers." Nicotine & Tobacco Research, 6(2): S163-S179. (Pubitemid 38684121)
25. Donatelle, Rebecca J., Susan L. Prows, Donna Champeau, and Deanne Hudson. 2000. "Randomized Controlled Trial Using Social Support and Financial Incentives for High-Risk Pregnant Smokers: Signifi cant Other Supporter (SOS) Program." Tobacco Control, 9(Suppl. 3): III67-III69.
26. Ellingsen, Tore, and Magnus Johannesson. 2007. "Paying Respect." Journal of Economic Perspectives, 21(4): 135-49.
27. Falk, Armin, and Michael Kosfeld. 2006. "The Hidden Costs of Control." American Economic Review, 96(5): 1611-30.
28. Fehr, Ernst, and Simon Gächter. 2002. "Do Incentive Contracts Undermine Voluntary Cooperation?" Working Paper 34, Institute for Empirical Research in Economics, University of Zurich.
29. Fehr, Ernst, and John A. List. 2004. "The Hidden Costs and Returns of Incentives-Trust and Trustworthiness among CEOs." Journal of the European Economic Association, 2(5): 743-71.
30. Frey, Bruno S., and Felix Oberholzer-Gee. 1997. "The Cost of Price Incentives: An Empirical Analysis of Motivation Crowding-Out." American Economic Review, 87(4): 746-55. (Pubitemid 127457828)
31. Fryer, Roland G. 2010. "Financial Incentives and Student Achievement: Evidence from Randomized Trials." NBER Working Paper 15898.
32. Fuster, Andreas, and Stephan Meier. 2010. "Another Hidden Cost of Incentives: The Detrimental Effect on Norm Enforcement." Management Science, 56(1): 57-70.
33. Gächter, Simon, Esther Kessler, and Manfred Koenigstein. 2010. "Performance Incentives and the Dynamics of Voluntary Cooperation." Unpublished paper.
34. Gine, Xavier, Dean Karlan, and Jonathan Zinman. 2010. "Put Your Money Where Your Butt Is: A Commitment Savings Account for Smoking Cessation." American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, 2(4): 213-35.
35. Glewwe, Paul, Nauman Ilias, and Michael Kremer. 2010. "Teacher Incentives." American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, 2(3): 205-27.
36. Gneezy, Uri, and Aldo Rustichini. 2000a. "Pay Enough or Don't Pay At All." Quarterly Journal of Economics, 115(3): 791-810.
37. Gneezy, Uri, and Aldo Rustichini. 2000b. "A Fine Is a Price." Journal of Legal Studies, 29(1): 1-18.
38. Goette, Lorenz, and Alois Stutzer. 2010. "Blood Donations and Incentives: Evidence from a Field Experiment." Unpublished paper.
39. Gruber, Jonathan, and Botond Koszegi. 2001. "Is Addiction 'Rational'? Theory and Evidence." Quarterly Journal of Economics, 116(4): 1261-1303.
40. Heyman, James, and Dan Ariely. 2004. "Effort for Payment: A Tale of Two Markets." Psychological Science, 15(11): 787-93. (Pubitemid 39557996)
41. Jackson, C. Kirabo. 2010. "A Little Now for a Lot Later: A Look at Texas Advanced Placement Incentive Program." Journal of Human Resources, 45(3): 591-639.
42. Kinnaman, Thomas C. 2006. "Policy Watch: Examining the Justifi cation for Residential Recycling." Journal of Economic Perspectives, 20(4):219-32.
43. Kohn, Alfi e. 1999. Punished by Rewards: The Trouble with Gold Stars, Incentive Plans, A's, Praise, and Other Bribes. Boston: Houghton Mifflin.
44. Lacetera, Nicola, Mario Macis, and Robert Slonim. Forthcoming. "Will There Be Blood? Incentives and Displacement Effects in Pro-Social Behavior." American Economic Journal: Economic Policy.
45. Laibson, David I. 1997. "Golden Eggs and Hyperbolic Discounting." Quarterly Journal of Economics, 112(2): 443-477.
46. Leuven, Edwin, Hessel Osteerbeck, and Bas van der Klaauw. 2010. "The Effect of Financial Rewards on Students' Achievement: Evidence from aRandomized Experiment." Journal of the European Economic Association, 8(6): 1243-65.
47. Levitt, Steve, John List, and Sally Sadoff. 2010a. "The Impact of Short-term Financial Incentives on Student Performance." Unpublished paper.
48. Levitt, Steven, John List, and Sally Sadoff. 2010b. "The Effect of Performance-Based Incentives on Educational Achievement: Evidence from a Randomized Experiment." Unpublished paper.
49. Liberman, Varda, Steven M. Samuels, and Lee Ross. 2004. "The Name of the Game: Predictive Power of Reputations versus Situational Labels in Determining Prisoner's Dilemma Game Moves." Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 30(9): 1175-85. (Pubitemid 39137689)
50. Loewenstein, George. 1987. "Anticipation and the Valuation of Delayed Consumption." Economic Journal, 97(387): 666-84.
51. Meier, Stephan. 2007a. "Do Subsidies Increase Charitable Giving in the Long Run? Matching Donations in a Field Experiment." Journal of the European Economic Association, 5(6): 1203-22.
52. Meier, Stephan. 2007b. "A Survey of Economic Theories and Field Evidence on Pro-Social Behavior." In Economics and Psychology: A Promising New Cross-Disciplinary Field, ed. Bruno S. Frey and Alois Stutzer, 51-88. Cambridge: MIT Press.
53. Mellström, Carl, and Magnus Johannesson. 2008. "Crowding Out in Blood Donation: Was Titmuss Right?" Journal of the European Economic Association, 6(4): 845-63.
54. Rodriguez-Planas, Nuria, 2010. "Mentoring, Educational Services, and Economic Incentives: Longer-Term Evidence on Risky Behaviors from a Randomized Trial." IZA Discussion Paper 4968, Institute for the Study of Labor.
55. Rouse, Cecilia Elena. 1998. "Private School Vouchers and Student Achievement: An Evaluation of the Milwaukee Parental Choice Program." Quarterly Journal of Economics, 113(2): 553-602.
56. Russell, Louise. B. 1986. Is Prevention Better than Cure? Washington, DC: The Brookings Institution.
57. Schultz, T. Paul. 2004. "School Subsidies for the Poor: Evaluating the Mexican PROGRESA Poverty Program." Journal of Development Economics, 74(2): 199-250. (Pubitemid 38562989)
58. Skinner, Burrhuss Frederic. 1972. "Utopia through the Control of Human Behavior." In Readings in the Philosophy of Education, ed. John Martin Rich. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth.
59. Thaler, Richard H. 1999. "Mental Accounting Matters." Journal of Behavioral Decision Making, 12(3): 183-206.
60. Thaler, Richard H., and Cass R. Sunstein. 2008. Nudge: Improving Decisions on Health, Wealth, and Happiness. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.
61. Titmuss, Richard M. 1970. The Gift Relationship. London: Allen and Unwin.
62. Volpp, Kevin G., Andrea G. Levy, David A. Asch Jesse A. Berline, John J. Murphy, Angela Gomez, Harold Sox, Jingsan Zhu, and Caryn Lerman. 2006. "A Randomized Controlled Trial of Financial Incentives for Smoking Cessation." Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers and Prev ention, 15(1):12-18.
63. Volpp, Kevin G., Andrea B. Troxel, Mark V. Pauly, Henry A. Glick, Andrea Puig, David A. Asch, Robert Galvin, Jingsan Zhu, Fei Wan, Jill DeGuzman, Elizabeth Corbett, Janet Weiner, and Janet Audrain-McGovern. 2009. "A Randomized Trial of Financial Incentives for Smoking Cessation." New England Journal of Medicine, 350(7): 699-709.