TY - RPRT AU - Manthei, Kathrin AU - Sliwka, Dirk AU - Vogelsang, Timo TI - Talking about Performance or Paying for it? Evidence from a Field Experiment PY - 2019/Jun/ PB - Institute of Labor Economics (IZA) CY - Bonn T2 - IZA Discussion Paper IS - 12446 UR - https://www.iza.org/publications/dp12446 AB - We investigate the causal effect of conversations about performance and performance pay implementing a 2x2 field experiment in a retail chain. In the performance pay treatments, managers receive a bonus for profit increases. In the performance review treatments, managers have regular meetings with their supervisors discussing their activities to increase profits. We find that review conversations raise profits by 7%-8%. However, when additionally receiving performance pay this effect vanishes. Analyzing an extension of Bénabou and Tirole (2006), we rationalize this effect formally and provide empirical evidence that the use of performance pay changes the nature of conversations undermining their value. KW - field experiment KW - feedback KW - monitoring KW - performance reviews KW - performance pay KW - management practices ER -