Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/172536 
Year of Publication: 
2017
Series/Report no.: 
GlobalFood Discussion Papers No. 113
Publisher: 
Georg-August-Universität Göttingen, Research Training Group (RTG) 1666 - GlobalFood, Göttingen
Abstract: 
Competitive bonuses are commonly used to promote higher productivity in the workplace. Yet, these types of incentives could have negative spillovers on coworkers' prosocial behavior in subsequent tasks. To investigate this question, we conduct a lab-in-the-field experiment in Ghana. In a between-subjects design, participants complete a real-effort task under a competitive, threshold, or random payment while holding payment differentials constant across treatments. Before and after, we measure prosociality through a public goods and a social value orientation game. Competition reduces prosociality when the dispersion of payments is high. However, when there is less at stake, competition does not affect prosociality.
Subjects: 
competitive payment
wage differences
prosociality
field experiment
JEL: 
C93
D03
J33
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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