Arbeitspapier

Who benefits from benefits? Empirical research on tangible incentives

Although a broad field of literature on incentive theory exists, employer-provided tangible goods (hereafter called benefits) have so far been neglected by economic research. A remarkable exception is an empirical study by Oyer (2008). In our study, we test some of his findings by drawing on a German data set. We use two waves of the GSOEP data (2006, 2008) to analyze the occurrence of benefits and their effects on employees' satisfaction. Our results provide evidence for economic as well as psychological explanations. Looking at differences in firms' and employees' characteristics we find that cost efficiency concerns, the purpose to signal good working conditions and the aim to ease employees' effort costs are evident reasons to provide benefits. Furthermore, analyzing the impact of tangible and monetary incentives on satisfaction and employees' feeling of being acknowledged by employers, we find different motivational effects. Our results support the psychological explanation that benefits are evaluated separately from other monetary wage components and are more likely to express employers' concern for their employees and recognition of their performance.

Language
Englisch

Bibliographic citation
Series: IZA Discussion Papers ; No. 6284

Classification
Wirtschaft
Survey Methods; Sampling Methods
Nonwage Labor Costs and Benefits; Retirement Plans; Private Pensions
Personnel Economics: Compensation and Compensation Methods and Their Effects
Subject
nonmonetary incentives
benefits
work motivation
Leistungsanreiz
Arbeitsbedingungen
Leistungsmotivation
Deutschland

Event
Geistige Schöpfung
(who)
Hammermann, Andrea
Mohnen, Alwine
Event
Veröffentlichung
(who)
Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA)
(where)
Bonn
(when)
2012

Handle
URN
urn:nbn:de:101:1-201203145330
Last update
10.03.2025, 11:44 AM CET

Data provider

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Object type

  • Arbeitspapier

Associated

  • Hammermann, Andrea
  • Mohnen, Alwine
  • Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA)

Time of origin

  • 2012

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