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Employee incentives: Bonuses or penalties?

Author

Listed:
  • Daniele Nosenzo

    (University of Nottingham, UK)

Abstract

Firms regularly use incentives to motivate their employees to be more productive. However, often little attention is paid to the language used in employment contracts to describe these incentives. It may be more effective to present incentives as entitlements that can be lost by failing to reach a performance target, rather than as additional rewards that can be gained by reaching that target. However, emphasizing the potential losses incurred as a result of failure may entail hidden costs for the employer, as it may damage the trust relationship between a firm and its employees.

Suggested Citation

  • Daniele Nosenzo, 2016. "Employee incentives: Bonuses or penalties?," IZA World of Labor, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA), pages 234-234, January.
    • Handle: RePEc:iza:izawol:journl:y:2016:n:234
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    References listed on IDEAS

    as
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    7. Olivier Armantier & Amadou Boly, 2014. "On the effects of incentive framing on bribery: evidence from an experiment in Burkina Faso," Economics of Governance, Springer, vol. 15(1), pages 1-15, February.
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    Cited by:

    1. Felix Koelle & Tom Lane & Daniele Nosenzo & Chris Starmer, 2017. "Nudging the electorate: what works and why?," Discussion Papers 2017-16, The Centre for Decision Research and Experimental Economics, School of Economics, University of Nottingham.
    2. Boosey, Luke & Goerg, Sebastian, 2020. "The timing of discretionary bonuses – effort, signals, and reciprocity," Games and Economic Behavior, Elsevier, vol. 124(C), pages 254-280.
    3. Ken Yahagi, 2023. "Sanctions and rewards with a motivated agent," Managerial and Decision Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 44(4), pages 2057-2067, June.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    employee motivation; bonuses; penalties; loss aversion; contract framing;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • C9 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Design of Experiments
    • D02 - Microeconomics - - General - - - Institutions: Design, Formation, Operations, and Impact
    • D03 - Microeconomics - - General - - - Behavioral Microeconomics: Underlying Principles

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