Discussion Papers

IZA Discussion Paper No. 18600

Economic Incentives or Social Norms? Labor Supply Differentials Between East and West German Mothers

Bastien Chabé-Ferret, Zainab Iftikhar, JungJae Park

IZA Discussion Paper No. 18574

Toward a Bad Job Economy: AI Adoption, Agency Costs, and Job Design

Matthias Fahn, Jin Li, Chang Sun

IZA Discussion Paper No. 18541

Reviewed at Work, Restless at Night? Performance Appraisals and Sleep Satisfaction

Anaïs Breulet, Christian Grund

IZA Discussion Paper No. 18059

Management Practices, Workplace Health Promotion and Productivity

Uwe Jirjahn, Jens Mohrenweiser

IZA Discussion Paper No. 17985

Can Politics Tame the Market? Market Responses to Government Control of Fully and Partially Privatized Firms in China

Christos Mavrovitis (Mavis), Sarmistha Pal

forthcoming in: European Financial Management Journal

IZA Discussion Paper No. 17904

Meaning at Work

Nava Ashraf, Oriana Bandiera, Virginia Minni, Luigi Zingales

IZA Discussion Paper No. 17812

Leaving Money on the Table

Mackenzie Alston, Tatyana Deryugina, Olga Shurchkov

IZA Discussion Paper No. 17778

On the Role of Legislation as a Driver of Incentive Management Practices in Europe

John T. Addison, Paulino Teixeira

IZA Discussion Paper No. 17606

Do Stronger Employer Responsibilities Enhance Workplace Accommodation for Sick-Listed Workers? Evidence from a Dutch Reform

Laura Jansen, Viola Angelini, Max Groneck, Raun van Ooijen

IZA Discussion Paper No. 17519

Coordination Games Played by Children and Teenagers: On the Influence of Age, Group Size and Incentives

Daniela Glätzle-Rützler, Matthias Sutter, Claudia Zoller

IZA Discussion Paper No. 17287

One Size Fits All? The Interplay of Incentives, Effort Provision, and Personality

Zvonimir Bašić, Stefania Bortolotti, Daniel Salicath, Stefan Schmidt, Sebastian O. Schneider, Matthias Sutter

IZA Discussion Paper No. 17267

Evaluating Yourself and Your Peers

Mingye Ma, Gerhard Riener, Youzong Xu

IZA Discussion Paper No. 17224

Tax Incentives and Return Migration

Jacopo Bassetto, Giuseppe Ippedico

IZA Discussion Paper No. 17119

Making the Right Call: The Heterogeneous Effects of Individual Performance Pay on Productivity

Marco Clemens, Jan Sauermann

published in: Labour Economics, 2025, 94, 102694

IZA Discussion Paper No. 17109

Reducing the Child Penalty by Incentivizing Maternal Part-Time Work?

Laurenz Baertsch, Malte Sandner

IZA Discussion Paper No. 17042

Informal Incentives and Labor Markets

Matthias Fahn, Takeshi Murooka

published in: Economic Journal, 2025, 135 (665), 144–179

IZA Discussion Paper No. 16872

Incentive Contracts Crowd Out Voluntary Cooperation: Evidence from Gift-Exchange Experiments

Simon Gächter, Esther Kaiser, Manfred Königstein

published in: Experimental Economics, 2025, 28 (1), 75-106

IZA Discussion Paper No. 16872

Incentive Contracts Crowd Out Voluntary Cooperation: Evidence from Gift-Exchange Experiments

Simon Gächter, Esther Kaiser, Manfred Königstein

published in: Experimental Economics, 2025, 28 (1), 75-106

IZA Discussion Paper No. 16812

Multi-Rater Performance Evaluations and Incentives

Axel Ockenfels, Dirk Sliwka, Peter Werner

IZA Discussion Paper No. 16652

How Negative Labor Supply Shocks Affect Training in Firms: Lessons from Opening the Swiss-German Border

Caroline Neuber-Pohl, Damiano Pregaldini, Uschi Backes-Gellner, Sandra Dummert, Harald Pfeifer

Published as "Employment Prospects and Firm-based Training: Evidence from Opening the Swiss-German Border" in Labour Economics, 2026, 99

IZA Discussion Paper No. 16470

Retirement Decision of Belgian Couples and the Impact of the Social Security System

Sefane Cetin, Alain Jousten

IZA Discussion Paper No. 16379

Non-monetary Interventions, Workforce Retention and Hospital Quality: Evidence from the English NHS

Giuseppe Moscelli, Melisa Sayli, Jo Blanden, Marco Mello, Henrique Castro-Pires, Chris Bojke

IZA Discussion Paper No. 16333

Outside Options and Worker Motivation

Alexander Ahammer, Matthias Fahn, Flora Stiftinger

IZA Discussion Paper No. 16284

Incentive Complexity, Bounded Rationality and Effort Provision

Johannes Abeler, David B. Huffman, Collin Raymond

IZA Discussion Paper No. 16172

Does a Flexible Parental Leave System Stimulate Maternal Employment?

Lennart Ziegler, Omar Bamieh

IZA Discussion Paper No. 16165

Patient versus Provider Incentives in Long-Term Care

Martin B. Hackmann, Vincent Pohl, Nicolas R. Ziebarth

published in: American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, 2024, 16 (3), 178–218

IZA Discussion Paper No. 16165

Patient versus Provider Incentives in Long-Term Care

Martin B. Hackmann, Vincent Pohl, Nicolas R. Ziebarth

published in: American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, 2024, 16 (3), 178–218

IZA Discussion Paper No. 16060

Provider Responses to the Expansion of Public Subsidies in Healthcare: The Case of Oral Chemotherapy Treatment in Australia

Maryam Naghsh Nejad, Serena Yu, Philip Haywood

published in: Social Science & Medicine, 2023, 330, 116041

IZA Discussion Paper No. 16028

Overexertion of Effort under Working Time Autonomy and Feedback Provision

Thomas Dohmen, Elena Shvartsman

published in: Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, 2023, 212, 255-1266

IZA Discussion Paper No. 16025

Tournament Incentives Affect Perceived Stress and Hormonal Stress Responses

Thomas Dohmen, Ingrid M.T. Rohde, Tom Stolp

published in: Experimental Economics, 2023, 26 (4), 955–985.

IZA Discussion Paper No. 15890

What Drives Paternity Leave: Financial Incentives or Flexibility?

Lennart Ziegler, Omar Bamieh

IZA Discussion Paper No. 15881

Implicit Contracts, Incentive Compatibility, and Involuntary Unemployment: Thirty Years On

W. Bentley MacLeod, James Malcomson

published in: Journal of Institutional and Theoretical Economicsi (JITE), 2023, 179 (3), 470 - 499

IZA Discussion Paper No. 15716

Revenue Drift, Incentives, and Effort Allocation in Social Enterprises

Theodor Vladasel, Simon C. Parker, Randolph Sloof, Mirjam C. van Praag

published in: Journal of Economics & Management Strategy, 2024, 33 (3), 630 - 651

IZA Discussion Paper No. 15668

Investment Tax Credits and the Response of Firms

Adrian Lerche

published in: American Economic Review, 2025, 115 (8), 2781–2818

IZA Discussion Paper No. 15599

Mystery Shopping as a Strategic Management Practice in Multi-Site Firms

Sidney T. Block, Guido Friebel, Matthias Heinz, Nick Zubanov

IZA Discussion Paper No. 15532

Gender, Motivation, and Self-Selection into Teaching

Francesca Barigozzi, Jaai Parasnis, Massimiliano Tani

IZA Discussion Paper No. 15480

Do Non-monetary Interventions Improve Staff Retention? Evidence from English NHS Hospitals

Melisa Sayli, Giuseppe Moscelli, Jo Blanden, Chris Bojke, Marco Mello

IZA Discussion Paper No. 15195

In-Group Favoritism and Peer Effects in Wrongful Acquittals: NBA Referees as Judges

Naci Mocan, Eric Osborne-Christenson

published in: Journal of Law and Economics, 2024, 67 (4), 731–766

IZA Discussion Paper No. 15173

Why Do Temporary Workers Have Higher Disability Insurance Risks Than Permanent Workers?

Pierre Koning, Paul Muller, Roger Prudon

published in: Labour Economics, 2025, 96, 102719

IZA Discussion Paper No. 15001

The Variability and Volatility of Sleep: An Archetypal Approach

Daniel S. Hamermesh, Gerard A. Pfann

published in: Economics & Human Biology, 2022, 47, 101175

IZA Discussion Paper No. 14779

The Right Person for the Right Job: Workers' Prosociality as a Screening Device

Maria Bigoni, Matteo Ploner, Thi-Thanh-Tam Vu

published in: Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, 2023, 212, 53 - 73

IZA Discussion Paper No. 14683

Who Benefits from Tax Incentives? The Heterogeneous Wage Incidence of a Tax Credit

Clément Carbonnier, Clément Malgouyres, Loriane Py, Camille Urvoy

published in: Journal of Public Economics, 2022, 206, 104577

IZA Discussion Paper No. 14595

Incentives, Self-Selection, and Coordination of Motivated Agents for the Production of Social Goods

Kevin Bauer, Michael Kosfeld, Ferdinand von Siemens

IZA Discussion Paper No. 14594

Estimating Coherency between Survey Data and Incentivized Experimental Data

Christian Belzil, Julie Pernaudet, François Poinas

IZA Discussion Paper No. 14565

Return-to-Work Policies' Clawback Regime and Labor Supply in Disability Insurance Programs

Arezou Zaresani, Miguel Olivo-Villabrille

published in: Labour Economics, 2022, 78, 102215

IZA Discussion Paper No. 14503

The Long-Run Effects of Consequential School Accountability

Jonathan Mansfield, David Slichter

forthcoming in: Journal of Labor Economics

IZA Discussion Paper No. 14285

Job Design, Learning & Intrinsic Motivation

Michael Gibbs

IZA Discussion Paper No. 14242

Incentives for Cooperation in Teams: Sociality Meets Decision Rights

Britta Butz, Pablo Guillen Alvarez, Christine Harbring

published in: Review of Managerial Science, 2024, 18, 2925 - 2951

IZA Discussion Paper No. 14199

Information Provision, Incentives, and Attention: A Field Experiment on Facilitating and Influencing Managers' Decisions

Kathrin Manthei, Dirk Sliwka, Timo Vogelsang

IZA Discussion Paper No. 14125

Non-linear Incentives, Worker Productivity, and Firm Profits: Evidence from a Quasi-Experiment

Richard B. Freeman, Wei Huang, Teng Li

IZA Discussion Paper No. 14111

Altruism or Money? Reducing Teacher Sorting Using Behavioral Strategies in Peru

Nicolas Ajzenman, Eleonora Bertoni, Gregory Elacqua, Luana Marotta, Carolina Méndez Vargas

published in: Journal of Labor Economics, 2024, 42 (2), 1049–1091

IZA Discussion Paper No. 14014

The Distinct Impact of Information and Incentives on Cheating

Julien Benistant, Fabio Galeotti, Marie Claire Villeval

revised version published as 'Competition, information, and the erosion of morals' in: Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, 2022, 204, 148-163,

IZA Discussion Paper No. 13999

Improving Healthy Eating in Children: Experimental Evidence

Gary Charness, Ramón Cobo-Reyes, Erik Eyster, Gabriel Katz, Ángela Sánchez, Matthias Sutter

revised version publishedd as 'Improving children’s food choices: Experimental evidence from the field: in: European Economic Review, 2023, 159, 104562

IZA Discussion Paper No. 13898

Workplace Incentives and Organizational Learning

Francesco Amodio, Miguel A. Martinez-Carrasco

published in: Journal of Labor Economics 2023, 41 (2), 453-478

IZA Discussion Paper No. 13860

Labor-Market Conditions and Leadership Styles

Robert Dur, Ola Kvaløy, Anja Schöttner

revised version published in: Management Science, 2022, 68 (4), 3150-3168

IZA Discussion Paper No. 13845

Understanding the Response to High-Stakes Incentives in Primary Education

Maximilian Bach, Mira Fischer

IZA Discussion Paper No. 13758

Discontinuous System of Allowances: The Response of Prosocial Health-Care Professionals

Helena Hernandez-Pizarro, Catia Nicodemo, Guillem López Casasnovas

published in: Journal of Public Economics, 2021, 190, 104248

IZA Discussion Paper No. 13732

Nudging Demand for Academic Support Services: Experimental and Structural Evidence from Higher Education

Todd Pugatch, Nicholas Wilson

published in: Journal of Human Resources, 2024, 59 (5), 1637-1682

IZA Discussion Paper No. 13696

Recruitment, Effort, and Retention Effects of Performance Contracts for Civil Servants: Experimental Evidence from Rwandan Primary Schools

Clare Leaver, Owen Ozier, Pieter Serneels, Andrew Zeitlin

published in: American Economic Review 2021, 111 (7), 2213 - 2246

IZA Discussion Paper No. 13498

Team Incentives, Social Cohesion, and Performance: A Natural Field Experiment

Josse Delfgaauw, Robert Dur, Oke Onemu, Joeri Sol

published in: Management Science, 2022, 68 (1), 230-256

IZA Discussion Paper No. 13373

Allocating Subsidies for Private Investments to Maximize Jobs Impacts

David A. Robalino, Jose M. Romero, Ian Walker

IZA Discussion Paper No. 13345

Monetary and Social Incentives in Multi-Tasking: The Ranking Substitution Effect

Matthias Stefan, Jürgen Huber, Michael Kirchler, Matthias Sutter, Markus Walzl

published in: European Economic Review, 2023, 56, 104458

IZA Discussion Paper No. 13287

Bias and Careers: Evidence from the Aid Effectiveness Literature

Chris Doucouliagos, Thomas Hinz, Katarina Zigova

IZA Discussion Paper No. 13108

The Response to Dynamic Incentives in Insurance Contracts with a Deductible: Evidence from a Differences-in-Regression-Discontinuities Design

Tobias J. Klein, Martin Salm, Suraj Upadhyay

revised version published in: Journal of Public Economics, 2022, 210, 104660

IZA Discussion Paper No. 12992

Working Too Much for Too Little: Stochastic Rewards Cause Work Addiction

Brice Corgnet, Simon Gächter, Roberto Hernán González

revised version published online as 'No rest for the weary: Pay uncertainty reduces engagement in recovery' in: Journal of Applied Psychology, 2025

IZA Discussion Paper No. 12905

When Too Good Is Too Much: Social Incentives and Job Selection

Tommaso G. Reggiani, Rainer Michael Rilke

revised version online as 'Designing Donation Incentive Contracts for Online Gig Workers' in: Journal of Business Ethics, 2024, 190, 553 - 568

IZA Discussion Paper No. 12872

The Economics behind the Epidemic: Afghan Opium Price and Prescription Opioids in the US

Claudio Deiana, Ludovica Giua, Roberto Nistico

published as 'Opium Price Shocks and Prescription Opioids in the US' in: Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics, 2024, 86 (3), 449 - 484

IZA Discussion Paper No. 12850

Why Are There More Accidents on Mondays? Economic Incentives, Ergonomics or Externalities

Michelle Poland, Isabelle Sin, Steven Stillman

IZA Discussion Paper No. 12840

Inputs, Incentives, and Self-Selection at the Workplace

Francesco Amodio, Miguel A. Martinez-Carrasco

IZA Discussion Paper No. 12772

Why Don't We Sleep Enough? A Field Experiment among College Students

Mallory Avery, Osea Giuntella, Peiran Jiao

published online in: Review of Economics and Statistics, 27 September 2022

IZA Discussion Paper No. 12748

Combined and Distributional Effects of EPL Reduction and Hiring Incentives: An Assessment Using Non-Linear DiD

Chiara Ardito, Fabio Berton, Lia Pacelli

published in: Journal of Economic Inequality, 2023, 21, 925–954

IZA Discussion Paper No. 12667

Paying Gig Workers – Evidence from a Field Experiment

Sebastian Butschek, Roberto González Amor, Patrick Kampkötter, Dirk Sliwka

published as "Motivating gig workers - evidence from a field experiment" in Labour Economics, 2022

IZA Discussion Paper No. 12600

Teacher Performance Pay and Student Learning: Evidence from a Nationwide Program in Peru

Cristina Bellés Obrero, María Lombardi

published in: Economic Development and Cultural Change, 2022, 70 (4), 1631–1669

IZA Discussion Paper No. 12493

Publication Bias and Editorial Statement on Negative Findings

Cristina Blanco-Perez, Abel Brodeur

published in: Economic Journal, 2020, 130 (623), 1226-1247

IZA Discussion Paper No. 12437

Rank Incentives and Social Learning: Evidence from a Randomized Controlled Trial

Isabella Dobrescu, Marco Faravelli, Rigissa Megalokonomou, Alberto Motta

IZA Discussion Paper No. 12297

More Hospital Choices, More C-Sections: Evidence from Chile

Ramiro de Elejalde, Eugenio Giolito

revised version published as "A demand-smoothing incentive for cesarean deliveries" in: Journal of Health Economics 2021, 75, 102411

IZA Discussion Paper No. 12267

Helping under a Combination of Team and Tournament Incentives

Anastasia Danilov, Bernd Irlenbusch, Christine Harbring

published in: in: Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization 2019, 162, 120-135

IZA Discussion Paper No. 12264

Responding to Regulation: The Effects of Changes in Mandatory Retirement Laws on Firm-Provided Incentives

Anders Frederiksen, Colleen Flaherty Manchester

published as 'Personnel Practices and Regulation: How Firm-Provided Incentives Respond to Changes in Mandatory Retirement Law' in: Journal of Labor Economics, 2021, 39 (4), 1011-1042

IZA Discussion Paper No. 12250

The Pied Piper: Prizes, Incentives, and Motivation Crowding-In

Luigino Bruni, Vittorio Pelligra, Tommaso G. Reggiani, Matteo Rizzolli

revised version published in: Journal of Business Ethics, 2020, 166(3), 643-658

IZA Discussion Paper No. 12225

Do Tax Incentives Affect Business Location and Economic Development? Evidence from State Film Incentives

Patrick Button

published in: Regional Science and Urban Economics, 2019, 77, 315-339.

IZA Discussion Paper No. 12217

Incentives, Search Engines, and the Elicitation of Subjective Beliefs: Evidence from Representative Online Survey Experiments

Elisabeth Grewenig, Katharina Werner, Ludger Woessmann, Philipp Lergetporer

published in: Journal of Econometrics, 2022, 231 (1), 304-326

IZA Discussion Paper No. 12155

Have You Read This? An Empirical Comparison of the British REF Peer Review and the Italian VQR Bibliometric Algorithm

Daniele Checchi, Alberto Ciolfi, Gianni De Fraja, Irene Mazzotta, Stefano Verzillo

published in Economica, 2021, 88 (352), 1107-1129

IZA Discussion Paper No. 11942

Leveraging Patients' Social Networks to Overcome Tuberculosis Underdetection: A Field Experiment in India

Jessica Goldberg, Mario Macis, Pradeep Chintagunta

published as 'Incentivized Peer Referrals for Tuberculosis Screening: Evidence from India' in: American Economic Review: Applied Economics, 2023, 15 (1), 259 - 291

IZA Discussion Paper No. 11920

High-Powered Performance Pay and Crowding out of Non-Monetary Motives

David B. Huffman, Michael L. Bognanno

published in: Management Science, 2018, 64 (10), 4669-4680.

IZA Discussion Paper No. 11889

Employee Absence: An Organizational Perspective

Jacob Kjær Eskildsen, Anders Frederiksen, Ann-Kristina Løkke

published as 'Employee Absence in Public and Private Organizations' in: Applied Economics, 2021, 53 (21), 2416-2432

IZA Discussion Paper No. 11859

Performance Pay and Prior Learning: Evidence from a Retail Chain

Kathrin Manthei, Dirk Sliwka, Timo Vogelsang

IZA Discussion Paper No. 11789

Prosocial Managers, Employee Motivation, and the Creation of Shareholder Value

Agne Kajackaite, Dirk Sliwka

published in: Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, 2020, 172, 217-235

IZA Discussion Paper No. 11765

Job Search Requirements, Effort Provision and Labor Market Outcomes

Patrick Arni, Amelie Schiprowski

published in: Journal of Public Economics, 2019, 169, 65-88

IZA Discussion Paper No. 11761

Choking under Pressure: Evidence of the Causal Effect of Audience Size on Performance

René Böheim, Dominik Grübl, Mario Lackner

published in: Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization, 2019, 168, 76–93

IZA Discussion Paper No. 11713

Foreign Competition and Executive Compensation in the Manufacturing Industry: A Comparison between Germany and the U.S.

Katharina Dyballa, Kornelius Kraft

IZA Discussion Paper No. 11704

How Demanding Are Activation Requirements for Jobseekers?

Herwig Immervoll, Carlo Knotz

IZA Discussion Paper No. 11668

Bribes vs. Taxes: Market Structure and Incentives

Francesco Amodio, Jieun Choi, Giacomo De Giorgi, Aminur Rahman

published in: Journal of Comparative Economics 2022, 50 (2), 435-453

IZA Discussion Paper No. 11581

Multitasking and Subjective Performance Evaluations: Theory and Evidence from a Field Experiment in a Bank

Kathrin Manthei, Dirk Sliwka

published in: Management Science, 2019, 65 (12), 5449-5956

IZA Discussion Paper No. 11521

Using Social Connections and Financial Incentives to Solve Coordination Failure: A Quasi-Field Experiment in India's Manufacturing Sector

Farzana Afridi, Amrita Dhillon, Sherry Xin Li, Swati Sharma

published in: Journal of Development Economics, 2020, 144, 102445

IZA Discussion Paper No. 11521

Using Social Connections and Financial Incentives to Solve Coordination Failure: A Quasi-Field Experiment in India's Manufacturing Sector

Farzana Afridi, Amrita Dhillon, Sherry Xin Li, Swati Sharma

published in: Journal of Development Economics, 2020, 144, 102445

IZA Discussion Paper No. 11516

Educator Incentives and Educational Triage in Rural Primary Schools

Daniel O. Gilligan, Naureen Karachiwalla, Ibrahim Kasirye, Adrienne Lucas, Derek Neal

published in: Journal of Human Resources, 2022, 57 (1), 79-111

IZA Discussion Paper No. 11492

Crime is in the Air: The Contemporaneous Relationship between Air Pollution and Crime

Malvina Bondy, Sefi Roth, Lutz Sager

published in: Journal of the Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, 2020, 7 (3), 555-585.

IZA Discussion Paper No. 11367

Incentives Can Reduce Bias in Online Reviews

Ioana E. Marinescu, Nadav Klein, Andrew Chamberlain, Morgan Smart

published in: Journal of Experimental Psychology: Applied, 2021, 27 (2), 393–407.

IZA Discussion Paper No. 11228

Team Incentives, Task Assignment, and Performance: A Field Experiment

Josse Delfgaauw, Robert Dur, Michiel Souverijn

published in: The Leadership Quarterly, 2020, 31 (3), 101241

IZA Discussion Paper No. 11203

Intentions for Doing Good Matter for Doing Well: The (Negative) Signaling Value of Prosocial Incentives

Lea Cassar, Stephan Meier

published in: Economic Journal, 2021, 131(637), 1988-2017