Prosocial Motivation and Incentives

This review explores the role of incentives in providing goods and services that have significant social returns not captured in private returns, and where outcomes and performances are not easy to measure. We discuss how the presence of prosocial motivation among agents involved in the provision of these goods and services changes the design of incentives. The review also emphasises how heterogeneous prosocial motivation puts a premium on selection of agents in this context. We also discuss alternative theories of prosocial motivation.

[1]  I. Grossmann,et al.  Social Incentives , 2018, Encyclopedia of Personality and Individual Differences.

[2]  Javed Ahmed Khan.  The Moral Economy: Why Good Incentives Are No Substitute for Good Citizens Yale University Press New Haven and London Reviewed by: Javed Ahmad Khan , 2018 .

[3]  Gani Aldashev,et al.  Small is Beautiful: Motivational Allocation in the Non-Profit Sector , 2018 .

[4]  Erika Deserranno.  Financial Incentives as Signals: Experimental Evidence from the Recruitment of Village Promoters in Uganda , 2017, American Economic Journal: Applied Economics.

[5]  B. Frey,et al.  Honours versus Money: The Economics of Awards , 2017 .

[6]  Oliver Hart,et al.  Companies Should Maximize Shareholder Welfare Not Market Value , 2017 .

[7]  Ludger Woessmann.  The Importance of School Systems: Evidence from International Differences in Student Achievement , 2016, SSRN Electronic Journal.

[8]  S. Bowles.  The Moral Economy: Why Good Incentives Are No Substitute for Good Citizens , 2016 .

[9]  Gene A. Brewer,et al.  Public Service Motivation: A Systematic Literature Review and Outlook , 2016 .

[10]  T. Besley,et al.  Profit with purpose? a theory of social enterprise with experimental evidence , 2013 .

[11]  K. Scharf.  Impure Prosocial Motivation in Charity Provision: Warm-Glow Charities and Implications for Public Funding , 2013, SSRN Electronic Journal.

[12]  R. Coase,et al.  The Problem of Social Cost , 1960, The Journal of Law and Economics.

[13]  Imran Rasul,et al.  Management of Bureaucrats and Public Service Delivery: Evidence from the Nigerian Civil Service , 2013 .

[14]  R. Manjula,et al.  Motivating Knowledge Agents: Can Incentive Pay Overcome Social Distance? , 2013 .

[15]  Robert Dur,et al.  Employee Recognition and Performance: A Field Experiment , 2013, Manag. Sci..

[16]  David Isaacs,et al.  Making a difference , 2013, Journal of paediatrics and child health.

[17]  Robert Dur,et al.  Intrinsic Motivations of Public Sector Employees: Evidence for Germany , 2012, SSRN Electronic Journal.

[18]  Robert Dur,et al.  Incentives and the Sorting of Altruistic Agents into Street‐Level Bureaucracies , 2012, SSRN Electronic Journal.

[19]  Emir Kamenica,et al.  Behavioral Economics and Psychology of Incentives , 2012 .

[20]  Frederico Finan,et al.  Strengthening State Capabilities: The Role of Financial Incentives in the Call to Public Service , 2012, SSRN Electronic Journal.

[21]  E. Auriol,et al.  Anti-Social Behavior in Profit and Nonprofit Organizations , 2012 .

[22]  C. Propper,et al.  The Use of Performance Measures in Health Care Systems , 2012 .

[23]  Robert Dur,et al.  Working for a Good Cause , 2011, SSRN Electronic Journal.

[24]  A. Barr,et al.  Intrinsic Motivations and the Non-Profit Health Sector: Evidence from Ethiopia , 2011 .

[25]  Sarah Smith,et al.  The Centre for Market and Public Organisation How Important Is Pro-social Behaviour in the Delivery of Public Services? How Important Is Pro-social Behaviour in the Delivery of Public Services? Acknowledgements , 2008 .

[26]  David A. Savage,et al.  Identity Economics: How our Identities Shape our Work, Wages, and Well‐being , 2011 .

[27]  Rachel E. Kranton,et al.  Identity Economics: How Our Identities Shape Our Work, Wages, and Well-Being , 2010 .

[28]  Robert Dur,et al.  Managerial Talent, Motivation, and Self-Selection into Public Management , 2008, SSRN Electronic Journal.

[29]  Canice Prendergast.  Intrinsic Motivation and Incentives , 2008 .

[30]  P. Francois,et al.  Pro-social Motivation and the Delivery of Social Services , 2008 .

[31]  Massimo Morelli,et al.  Entrepreneurial talent, occupational choice, and trickle up policies , 2007, J. Econ. Theory.

[32]  Maitreesh Ghatak,et al.  Retailing public goods: The economics of corporate social responsibility , 2007 .

[33]  Canice Prendergast,et al.  The Motivation and Bias of Bureaucrats , 2007 .

[34]  Timothy Besley,et al.  Principled Agents?: The Political Economy of Good Government , 2006 .

[35]  R. Hagen.  Samaritan Agents? On the Strategic Delegation of Aid Policy , 2006 .

[36]  George A. Akerlof,et al.  Identity and the Economics of Organizations , 2005 .

[37]  J. Tirole,et al.  Incentives and Prosocial Behavior , 2004 .

[38]  R. Reinikka,et al.  Making Services Work for Poor People , 2004 .

[39]  Robert Dur,et al.  Incentives and Workers Motivation in the Public Sector , 2004, SSRN Electronic Journal.

[40]  Robert Dur,et al.  Signaling and Screening of Workers' Motivation , 2003, SSRN Electronic Journal.

[41]  Maitreesh Ghatak,et al.  Competition and Incentives with Motivated Agents , 2003 .

[42]  Canice Prendergast,et al.  The Limits of Bureaucratic Efficiency , 2003, Journal of Political Economy.

[43]  B. Weisbrod,et al.  Managerial rewards and the behavior of for-profit, governmental, and nonprofit organizations: evidence from the hospital industry , 2003 .

[44]  J. Tirole,et al.  Intrinsic and Extrinsic Motivation , 2003 .

[45]  Kevin C. Murdock.  Intrinsic Motivation and Optimal Incentive Contracts , 2002 .

[46]  Patrick Francois,et al.  'Public service motivation' as an argument for government provision , 2000 .

[47]  A. Rustichini,et al.  Pay Enough or Don't Pay at All , 2000 .

[48]  M. Wooders,et al.  Multijurisdictional economies, the tiebout hypothesis, and sorting. , 1999, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America.

[49]  Canice Prendergast.  The Provision of Incentives in Firms , 1999 .

[50]  Tânia Margarete Mezzomo Keinert,et al.  Reinventing government: how the entrepreneurial spirit is transforming the public sector , 1993 .

[51]  G. Baker.  Incentive Contracts and Performance Measurement , 1992, Journal of Political Economy.

[52]  Avner Ben-Ner,et al.  The Nonprofit Economy. , 1985 .

[53]  Edward L. Deci,et al.  Intrinsic Motivation and Self-Determination in Human Behavior , 1975, Perspectives in Social Psychology.

[54]  F. Widmann,et al.  The Gift Relationship: From Human Blood to Social Policy , 1971 .

[55]  M. J. Langeveld,et al.  Education and sociology , 1958 .

[56]  Frederico Finan,et al.  Chapter 6 – The Personnel Economics of the Developing State , 2017 .

[57]  O. Bandiera,et al.  No Margin, No Mission? A Field Experiment on Incentives for Public Services Delivery , 2014 .

[58]  Paul R. Milgrom,et al.  The economic nature of the firm: Multitask principal–agent analyses: incentive contracts, asset ownership, and job design , 2009 .

[59]  T. Besley,et al.  Status Incentives , 2008 .

[60]  Sanjay K. Pandey,et al.  The Role of Organizations in Fostering Public Service Motivation , 2007 .

[61]  Jon Reiersen,et al.  Status and Incentives , 2004 .

[62]  J. Grand.  Motivation, Agency, and Public Policy: Of Knights and Knaves, Pawns and Queens , 2003 .

[63]  Avinash Dixit,et al.  # Incentives and Organizations in the Public Sector: An Interpretative Review , 2002 .

[64]  E. Deci,et al.  Intrinsic and Extrinsic Motivations: Classic Definitions and New Directions. , 2000, Contemporary educational psychology.

[65]  Bengt Holmstrom,et al.  Managerial Incentive Problems: A Dynamic Perspective , 1999 .

[66]  A. Schotter,et al.  Endogenous Preferences : The Cultural Consequences of Markets and other Economic Institutions , 1999 .

[67]  James L. Perry,et al.  Measuring Public Service Motivation: An Assessment of Construct Reliability and Validity , 1996 .

[68]  R. Frank.  The Demand for Unobservable and Other Nonpositional Goods , 1985 .

[69]  A. Sen,et al.  Rational Fools: A Critique of the Behavioral Foundations of Economic Theory , 1977 .

[70]  J. Newhouse.  Toward a Theory of Nonprofit Institutions: An Economic Model of a Hospital , 1970 .

[71]  E. Barrett.  The evolution of motivation. , 1911 .