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Academics Appreciate Awards. A New Aspect of Incentives in Research

Author Info

  • Bruno S. Frey
  • Susanne Neckermann

Abstract

This paper analyzes awards as a means of motivation prevalent in the scientific community, but so far neglected in the economic literature on incentives, and discusses their relationship to monetary compensation. Awards are better suited than performance pay to reward scientific tasks, which are typically of a vague nature. They derive their value, for instance, from signaling research talent to outsiders. Awards should therefore be taken seriously as a means of motivating research that may complement, or even substitute for, monetary incentives. While we discuss awards in the context of academia, our conclusions apply to other principal-agent settings as well.

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Paper provided by Center for Research in Economics, Management and the Arts (CREMA) in its series CREMA Working Paper Series with number 2008-32.

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Date of creation: Nov 2008
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Handle: RePEc:cra:wpaper:2008-32
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Keywords: Awards; Money; Incentives; Academia; Research;

Other versions of this item:

Find related papers by JEL classification:
  • C93 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Design of Experiments - - - Field Experiments
  • J33 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Wages, Compensation, and Labor Costs - - - Compensation Packages; Payment Methods
  • M52 - Business Administration and Business Economics; Marketing; Accounting; Personnel Economics - - Personnel Economics - - - Compensation and Compensation Methods and Their Effects

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  1. Emmanuelle Auriol & Régis Renault, 2008. "Status and incentives," RAND Journal of Economics, RAND Corporation, vol. 39(1), pages 305-326.
  2. Bruno S. Frey & Reto Jegen, 2000. "Motivation Crowding Theory: A Survey of Empirical Evidence," CESifo Working Paper Series 245, CESifo Group Munich.
  3. Angus Deaton, 2007. "Income, Aging, Health and Wellbeing Around the World: Evidence from the Gallup World Poll," NBER Working Papers 13317, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
  4. Bruno S. Frey & Alois Stutzer, 2002. "What Can Economists Learn from Happiness Research?," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 40(2), pages 402-435, June.
  5. Robert Dur, 2008. "Gift Exchange in the Workplace," Tinbergen Institute Discussion Papers 08-082/1, Tinbergen Institute.
  6. Bruno S. Frey, . "Knight Fever towards an Economics of Awards," IEW - Working Papers 239, Institute for Empirical Research in Economics - University of Zurich.
  7. Aldo Rustichini & Uri Gneezy, 2000. "A fine is a price," Natural Field Experiments 00258, The Field Experiments Website.
  8. repec:dau:papers:123456789/12479 is not listed on IDEAS
  9. Waldfogel, Joel, 1993. "The Deadweight Loss of Christmas," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 83(5), pages 1328-36, December.
  10. Timothy Besley & Maitreesh Ghatak, 2008. "Status Incentives," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 98(2), pages 206-11, May.
  11. Canice Prendergast, 1999. "The Provision of Incentives in Firms," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 37(1), pages 7-63, March.
  12. Susanne Neckermann & Reto Cueni & Bruno S. Frey, 2009. "What is an Award Worth? An Econometric Assessment of the Impact of Awards on Employee Performance," CESifo Working Paper Series 2657, CESifo Group Munich.
  13. Alois Stutzer & Bruno S. Frey, 2006. "What Happiness Research Can Tell Us About Self-Control Problems And Utility Misprediction," IEW - Working Papers 267, Institute for Empirical Research in Economics - University of Zurich.
  14. C. Gavrila & J.P. Caulkins & G. Feichtinger & G. Tragler & R.F. Hartl, 2005. "Managing the reputation of an award to motivate performance," Mathematical Methods of Operations Research, Springer;Gesellschaft für Operations Research (GOR);Nederlands Genootschap voor Besliskunde (NGB), vol. 61(1), pages 1-22, 03.
  15. Susanne Neckermann & Bruno S. Frey, 2008. "Awards as Incentives," IEW - Working Papers 334, Institute for Empirical Research in Economics - University of Zurich.
  16. Roland Bénabou & Jean Tirole, 2003. "Intrinsic and Extrinsic Motivation," Review of Economic Studies, Oxford University Press, vol. 70(3), pages 489-520.
  17. repec:spr:compst:v:61:y:2005:i:1:p:1-22 is not listed on IDEAS
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Cited by:

  1. Ho Fai Chan & Benno Torgler, 2012. "Econometric Fellows and Nobel Laureates in Economics," CREMA Working Paper Series 2012-13, Center for Research in Economics, Management and the Arts (CREMA).
  2. Hasan, Syed Akif & Subhani, Muhammad Imtiaz, 2011. "Relationship between Various Employee Performance Recognition Techniques and Customer Satisfaction: Evidence from the Restaurant Industry of Pakistan," MPRA Paper 34759, University Library of Munich, Germany.
  3. Lars P. Feld & Sarah Necker & Bruno S .Frey, 2014. "Happiness of economists," CREMA Working Paper Series 2014-16, Center for Research in Economics, Management and the Arts (CREMA).
  4. Singh, Prakarsh, 2011. "Performance Pay and Information: Reducing Child Malnutrition in Urban Slums," MPRA Paper 29403, University Library of Munich, Germany.

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