Cash, non-cash, or mix? Gender matters! The impact of monetary, non-monetary, and mixed incentives on performance

Artikel

Standard economic theory asserts that cash incentives are always better than non-cash ones, or at least not worse. This study employs a real effort experiment to analyze the impact of monetary, non-monetary, and a combination of monetary and non-monetary incentives on performance, where non-monetary incentives are defined as tangible incentives with market value. Our overall results suggest that there exists no significant difference in performance in response to monetary, non-monetary, and mixed incentives. However, gender-based differentiation reveals a different picture: the performances of men and women depend upon the type of incentive used. Whereas men’s performance is significantly higher in response to monetary incentives compared to non-monetary ones, women’s performance is significantly higher in response to non-monetary incentives. The gender differences in the effectiveness of monetary and non-monetary incentives do not seem to be triggered by the perceived attractiveness of the non-monetary incentives but rather by the differences between men and women in the feelings of appreciation and perceived performance pressure in a tournament setting. Therefore, our results indicate that gender differences must be considered when implementing incentives.

Object Details

• Language: Englisch

References and Relationships

• Bibliographic citation: Journal: Journal of Business Economics ; ISSN: 1861-8928 ; Volume: 90 ; Year: 2020 ; Issue: 8 ; Pages: 1253-1284 ; Berlin, Heidelberg: Springer

Classification and Topics

• Classification: Management ; Design of Experiments: Laboratory, Individual ; Microeconomic Behavior: Underlying Principles ; Economics of Gender; Non-labor Discrimination ; Compensation Packages; Payment Methods ; Personnel Economics: Compensation and Compensation Methods and Their Effects
• Subject: Monetary incentives ; Non-monetary incentives ; Mixed incentives ; Gender differences ; Work performance ; Experiment

Contributors, Places and Time

• Event: Geistige Schöpfung
• (who): Sittenthaler, Hanna M. ; Mohnen, Alwine
• Event: Veröffentlichung
• (who): Springer
• (where): Berlin, Heidelberg
• (when): 2020

Further information

• DOI: doi:10.1007/s11573-020-00992-0
• Last update: 10.03.2025, 11:43 AM CET