Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/312104 
Year of Publication: 
2024
Series/Report no.: 
CESifo Working Paper No. 11594
Publisher: 
CESifo GmbH, Munich
Abstract: 
We introduce the word illustration task (WIT), a novel experimental task to quantify performance in an idea generation context. Between treatments, we vary whether or not piece-rate (PR) incentives are implemented and the degree to which these incentives are aligned with the desirable outcome. We show that PR incentives have a positive impact on the number of innovative ideas, i.e., the number of ideas that are of high quality and original. We find that unweighted PR incentives (PR provided for any idea) perform at least as well as more aligned weighted PR incentives that are additionally contingent on the quality and/or originality of ideas. Our results suggest that when it comes to fostering idea generation, it is sufficient to incentivize trying instead of incentivizing succeeding.
Subjects: 
idea generation
real-effort experiment
incentives
creativity
JEL: 
C90
J33
M52
O31
Document Type: 
Working Paper
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