Work detail

Do Money Rewards Motivate People? A Meta-Analysis

Author: Bc. Petr Čala
Year: 2021 - summer
Leaders: doc. PhDr. Zuzana Havránková Ph.D.
Consultants:
Work type: Bachelors
Language: English
Pages: 71
Awards and prizes: Nomination Deloitte Outstanding Thesis Award.
Link: https://ckis.cuni.cz:443/F/?func=direct&doc_number=002448006&local_base=CKS01&format=999
Abstract: Do financial incentives motivate people to work better? A plethora of research papers in psychology have long tried to answer this question, together
with more recent papers from behavioral economics. We take a stock of
emerging research in economics and conduct a quantitative analysis from a
strictly economic point of view. We collect a total of 1568 estimates from
44 different studies and codify over 30 variables to capture the underlying
nature of the effect money has on motivation and performance. A range
of statistical tests suggests the overall effect to be virtually zero, which we
confirm using a specific design check. We then employ Bayesian and frequentist model averaging to identify the most prominent determinants of the
effect. Among these, publication bias pushes this effect upwards the most,
along with laboratory setting and positive framing in the task. Six variables
then pull the effect in the opposite direction - school setting, charitable giving, cross-sectional data, self-reward, quantitative performance, and students
subgroup.

Partners

Deloitte
Česká Spořitelna

Sponsors

CRIF
McKinsey
Patria Finance
EY