Self-administered rewards are ubiquitous. They serve as incentives for personal accomplishments and are widely recommended as tools for overcoming self-control problems. However, it seems puzzling why self-rewards can work: the prospect of a reward has a motivating force only if the threat of...

Incentive theory predicts that contract terms should respond to differences in agents' productivities. Firms' practice of anonymous contracts thus appears puzzling. We show that such a quot;one-size-fits-allquot; approach can be reconciled with standard agency theory if careers are marked by...

More liquid financial contracts are claimed to draw trading volume from contracts for which they are close substitutes. We provide the first analysis of how trading volume across existing financial contracts is affected by changes in the factors that govern the degree to which they are...

The Peter Principle captures two stylized facts about hierarchies: first, promotions often place employees into jobs for which they are less well suited than for that previously held. Second, demotions are extremely rare. Why do organizations not correct ‘wrong’ promotion decision? This...

Das vorliegende Papier schätzt auf Basis eines Probit-Modells die Wendepunkte des ifo-Geschäftserwartungsindex. Die übliche Vorgehensweise in der wissenschaftlichen Literatur wird um zwei Aspekte erweitert: Erstens werden zusätzlich zu einzelnen Variablen sogenannte Faktoren berücksichtigt,...