Combining "Real Effort" with Induced Effort Costs: The Ball-Catching Task

Arbeitspapier

We introduce the "ball-catching task", a novel computerized real effort task, which combines “real” efforts with induced material cost of effort. The central feature of the ball-catching task is that it allows researchers to manipulate the cost of effort function as well as the production function, which permits quantitative predictions on effort provision. In an experiment with piece-rate incentives we find that the comparative static and the point predictions on effort provision are remarkably accurate. We also present experimental findings from three classic experiments, namely, team production, gift exchange and tournament, using the task. All of the results are closely in line with the stylized facts from experiments using purely induced values. We conclude that the ball-catching task combines the advantages of real effort with induced values, which is useful for theory-testing purposes as well as for applications.

Object Details

• Language: Englisch

References and Relationships

• Bibliographic citation: Series: IZA Discussion Papers ; No. 9041

Classification and Topics

• Classification: Wirtschaft ; Design of Experiments: Laboratory, Individual ; Design of Experiments: Laboratory, Group Behavior ; Labor Contracts
• Subject: experimental design ; real effort task ; induced values ; incentives ; piece-rate theory ; team incentives ; gift exchange ; tournaments ; online real effort experiments

Contributors, Places and Time

• Event: Geistige Schöpfung
• (who): Gächter, Simon ; Huang, Lingbo ; Sefton, Martin
• Event: Veröffentlichung
• (who): Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA)
• (where): Bonn
• (when): 2015

Further information

• Handle: http://hdl.handle.net/10419/110768
• Last update: 10.03.2025, 11:43 AM CET