Heterogeneity in response to incentives: Evidence from field data

This dissertation explores whether observable individual characteristics such as gender, level of education and occupation are good predictors of people’s responses to competitive and cooperative incentive schemes. This inquiry is motivated by the belief that such characteristics can serve as proxies for the unobservable personality traits and attitudes that actually influence the reaction to incentives. Results presented in this dissertation complement related laboratory experiments by discussing evidence that is based on field experiments as well as naturally occurring data.
The studies discussed in this dissertation suggest that there are systematic differences between individuals’ reactions to incentives, and such heterogeneities have economically important consequences. Consequently, by taking observable dimensions of heterogeneity between individuals into account we can improve our predictions of people’s responses to incentives and thus design more efficient incentive schemes. Moreover, this dissertation highlights the importance of complementing laboratory experiments with scientific projects based on field data.