Motivation Governance

Abstract

Standard economics uses a one-dimensional concept of motivation. It assumes that people are perfectly rational and are solely motivated in a selfish way. This essay argues that people differ in their preferences with respect to pro-social orientations, that preferences are plastic and systematically susceptible to the design of institutions, working conditions, and the quality of human interactions, that individuals partly lack self-control in following their preferences, and that preferences often are not known to the individuals and are wrongly interpreted. We discuss measures for motivation governance derived from the insights of psychological economics.