Scandinavian Working Papers in Economics

UiS Working Papers in Economics and Finance,
University of Stavanger

No 2012/15: Incentives to Motivate

Ola Kvaløy () and Anja Schöttner ()
Additional contact information
Ola Kvaløy: UiS, Postal: University of Stavanger, NO-4036 Stavanger, Norway
Anja Schöttner: University of Bonn

Abstract: We present a model in which a motivator can take costly actions - or what we call motivational effort - in order to reduce the effort costs of a worker, and analyze the optimal combination of motivational effort and monetary incentives. We distinguish two cases. First, the firm owner chooses the intensity of motivation and bears the motivational costs. Second, another agent of the firm chooses the motivational actions and incurs the associated costs. In the latter case, the firm must not only incentivize the worker to work hard, but also the motivator to motivate the worker. We characterize and discuss the conditions under which monetary incentives and motivational effort are substitutes or complements, and show that motivational effort may exceed the efficient level.

Keywords: Incentives; Motivate

JEL-codes: A10

47 pages, July 17, 2012

Full text files

uis_wps_2012_15_kvaloy_schotter.pdf PDF-file 

Download statistics

Questions (including download problems) about the papers in this series should be directed to Bernt Arne Odegaard ()
Report other problems with accessing this service to Sune Karlsson ().

This page generated on 2024-02-05 17:13:43.