We examine how absolute and relative gains within reward schemes influence dishonesty. In our online experiment, we vary two payoff dimensions in a cheating mind game: the payoff level and the absolute payoff difference between being successful or not. A higher payoff level has a negative impact...

We examine the impact of monetary and non-monetary incentives, individually and combined, on residential electricity consumption. A field experiment in Switzerland provided all participants with access to a custom-developed app offering feedback on electricity use and energy-saving tips. In...

We conducted a within-subject laboratory experiment in which participants decided whether to experience physical discomfort for charity, with or without additional personal compensation. Acceptance decreased with greater discomfort and increased with both larger charitable donations and personal...

This paper develops a game-theoretic model to study how exclusionary contracts affect firms' incentives to invest in innovation. Several symmetric sellers compete to supply an identical product to a set of buyers, and each seller can invest in R&D to develop a higher-quality version of the...

Performance-contingent pay raises productivity, yet in the German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP) only about 16% of workers report receiving performance pay, with the incidence being roughly seven percentage points higher among university graduates than among non-graduates. This coexistence of low...

We investigate the determinants of states' policy capacity, defined as the ability of states to craft effective policies. Our model shows that the interaction between politicians' implementation decisions and bureaucrats' motivation to design effective policies can lead to the coexistence of...

This publication, based on contributions from members of the Cedefop community of apprenticeship experts, sheds light on how selected incentives for learners and employers participating in apprenticeships across Europe are designed, introduced and received by their target groups. The evidence...

This paper investigates the impact of corporate ESG performance on internal pay gaps using data from Chinese A-share listed companies from 2013 to 2023. Our study finds that, after controlling for relevant variables and fixed effects for firms and years, corporate ESG performance significantly...

Achieving the EU's climate-neutrality goal will require deployment of high-integrity carbon removals alongside deep emission cuts. Carbon farming - implementation of climate-friendly practices for carbon sequestration, storage and soil emission reduction- offers scalable abatements with multiple...

Web surveys often suffer from low response rates when invitations are sent via email. We conducted an experiment testing the effects of a $5 Starbucks gift card incentive on response rates and survey results from an email-web survey of Gulf of Mexico recreational anglers. Half the sample was...

This study replicates and extends the analysis of belief elicitation methods conducted by Danz et al. (2022). The original paper scrutinizes the binarized scoring rule (BSR) method and its effectiveness in incentivizing truthful reporting. Using data from the original controlled laboratory...