Combining ‘‘real effort’’ with induced effort costs: the ball-catching task

Gaechter, Simon; Huang, Lingbo; Sefton, Martin

Abstract

We introduce the “ball-catching task”, a novel computerized task, which combines a tangible action (“catching balls”) with induced material cost of effort. The central feature of the ball-catching task is that it allows researchers to manipulate the cost of effort function as well as the production function, which permits quantitative predictions on effort provision. In an experiment with piece-rate incentives we find that the comparative static and the point predictions on effort provision are remarkably accurate. We also present experimental findings from three classic experiments, namely, team production, gift exchange and tournament, using the task. All of the results are closely in line with the stylized facts from experiments using purely induced values. We conclude that the ball-catching task combines the advantages of real effort tasks with the use of induced values, which is useful for theory-testing purposes as well as for applications.

Citation

Gaechter, S., Huang, L., & Sefton, M. (2016). Combining ‘‘real effort’’ with induced effort costs: the ball-catching task. Experimental Economics, 19(4), https://doi.org/10.1007/s10683-015-9465-9

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Aug 30, 2015
• Online Publication Date: Sep 9, 2015
• Publication Date: Dec 31, 2016
• Deposit Date: Sep 17, 2015
• Publicly Available Date: Sep 17, 2015
• Journal: Experimental Economics
• Print ISSN: 1386-4157
• Electronic ISSN: 1573-6938
• Publisher: Springer Verlag
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 19
• Issue: 4
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10683-015-9465-9
• Keywords: Real effort task, Piece-rate theory, Team incentives, Gift exchange, Tournaments, Online real effort experiment
• Public URL: https://nottingham-repository.worktribe.com/output/831202
• Publisher URL: http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10683-015-9465-9
• Contract Date: Sep 17, 2015