What is an Award Worth? An Econometric Assessment of the Impact of Awards on Employee Performance

43 Pages Posted: 22 May 2009

See all articles by Susanne Neckermann

Susanne Neckermann

University of Zurich - Department of Economics

Reto Cueni

University of Zurich - Department of Economics

Bruno S. Frey

CREMA; University of Basel

Date Written: May 15, 2009

Abstract

Behavioral economics documents the importance of status and self-image concerns in the workplace, but is largely silent about how to instrumentalize them to induce effort. Awards - widespread in the corporate sector and elsewhere - are motivators that derive their value from such social concerns. Panel data from the call center of a large international bank allow us to estimate the impact of receiving an award on effort. The performance of winners proves to be significantly higher than that of comparable nonrecipients after the award has been presented. This increase in work effort is sizeable, robust, and not driven by reverse causation.

Keywords: Awards, Motivation, Non-monetary Compensation, Event-Study, Incentives

JEL Classification: C23, J33, M52

Suggested Citation

Neckermann, Susanne and Cueni, Reto and Frey, Bruno S., What is an Award Worth? An Econometric Assessment of the Impact of Awards on Employee Performance (May 15, 2009). CESifo Working Paper Series No. 2657, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=1407003 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.1407003

Susanne Neckermann (Contact Author)

University of Zurich - Department of Economics ( email )

Zuerich, 8006
Switzerland

Reto Cueni

University of Zurich - Department of Economics ( email )

Hottingerstrasse 10
Zuerich, 8032
Switzerland

HOME PAGE: http://www.econ.uzh.ch/faculty/cueni.html

Bruno S. Frey

CREMA ( email )

Südstrasse 11
Zurich, CH 8008
Switzerland
+41 44 380 00 78 (Phone)

University of Basel ( email )

Peter Merian-Weg 6
Basel, 4002
Switzerland

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