A Relative Deprivation Approach to Performance Incentives in Career Games and Other Contests.

To study performance incentives and reward structures, an equation based on the theory of relative deprivation is derived. The equation is applied to obtain several fundamental properties of career games and, in particular, to identify new devices for intervention that will encourage desirable behavior in such games. The last part contains comments pertaining to reference group formation, information, size, job transfers, and the general functional relationship between relative deprivation and effort elicitation. Copyright 1990 by WWZ and Helbing & Lichtenhahn Verlag AG