Effects of Inequality on Trust and Reciprocity: An Experiment With Real Effort

The purpose of this paper is analyzing whether trust and reciprocity are affected by how rich the partner is or how well the partner performed several tasks with real effort. A trust game (TG) experiment is designed with three treatments. First, a baseline Treatment B in which subjects play a finitely repeated TG. Second, in a Treatment H with history, subjects know the partner’s wealth level reached in the past. Third, in a Treatment E with effort the individual endowment with which the TG is played is endogenous and results from the subject’s performance in three different real effort tasks (maths, cognitive and general knowledge related). The data analysis highlights the importance of past wealth levels (Treatment H) as well as endowment heterogeneity (Treatment E), on the actual levels of trust and reciprocity. Specifically, it is observed that the decision of trustors is positively affected by positive past experienced reciprocity. Moreover, trustors are sensitive to how much money the trustee accumulates each round in Treatment H, trusting more the ones that have accumulated less compared to themselves. In contrast with that, it is remarkable in Treatment E that trustors are sensitive to the endowment level of the trustees, trusting more the partners that have got a higher than own endowment, probably considering that a person that performed better in the tasks is a better partner to trust. As far as second players’ behavior, as the amount received from the trustor increases it is less likely that the trustee reciprocates with higher than or with the egalitarian amount. In Treatments H and E, the probability that the trustee reciprocates with higher amount that the one received increases when inequality in endowment/accumulated earnings favors the trustor. Additional results come from analysis of personality archetypes and socio-demographic variables.

Mitigating Gig and Remote Worker Misconduct: Evidence from a Real Effort Experiment

Employee misconduct is costly to organizations and has the potential to be even more common in gig and remote work contexts, in which workers are physically distant from their employers. There is, thus, a need for scholars to better understand what employers can do to mitigate misconduct in these nontraditional work environments, particularly as the prevalence of such work environments is increasing. We combine an agency perspective with a behavioral relationship-based perspective to consider two avenues through which gig employers can potentially mitigate misconduct: (1) through the communication of organizational values and (2) through the credible threat of monitoring. We implement a real effort experiment in a gig work context that enables us to cleanly observe misconduct. Consistent with our theory, we present causal evidence that communication of organizational values, both externally facing in the form of social/environmental responsibility and internally facing in the form of an employee ethics code, decreases misconduct. This effect, however, is largely negated when workers are informed that they are being monitored. We provide suggestive evidence that this crowding out is due to a decrease in perceived trust that results from the threat of monitoring. Our results have important theoretical implications for research on employee misconduct and shed light on the trade-offs associated with various potential policy solutions.

The Hare and the Hedgehog: Empirical evidence on the relationship between the individual Pace of Life and the speed-accuracy continuum

Against the background of the speed-accuracy trade-off, we explored whether the Pace of Life can be used to identify heterogeneity in the strategy to place more weight on either fast or accurate accomplishments. The Pace of Life approaches an individual’s exposure to time and is an intensively studied concept in the evolutionary biology research. Albeit overall rarely, it is increasingly used to understand human behavior and may fulfill many criteria of a personal trait. In a controlled laboratory environment, we measured the participants’ Pace of Life, as well as their performance on a real-effort task. In the real-effort task, the participants had to encode words, whereby each word encoded correctly was associated with a monetary reward. We found that individuals with a faster Pace of Life accomplished more tasks in total. At the same time, they were less accurate and made more mistakes (in absolute terms) than those with a slower Pace of Life. Thus, the Pace of Life seems to be useful to identify an individual’s stance on the speed-accuracy continuum. In our specific task, placing more weight on speed instead of accuracy paid off: Individuals with a faster Pace of Life were ultimately more successful (with regard to their monetary revenue).

How success breeds success

We investigate if, and why, an initial success can trigger a string of successes. Using random variations in success in a real-effort laboratory experiment, we cleanly identify the causal effect of an early success in a competition. We confirm that an early success indeed leads to increased chances of a later success. By alternatively eliminating strategic features of the competition, we turn on and off possible mechanisms driving the effect of an early success. Standard models of dynamic contest predict a strategic effect due to asymmetric incentives between initial winners and losers. Surprisingly, we find no evidence that they can explain the positive effect of winning. Instead, we find that the effect of winning seems driven by an information revelation effect, whereby players update their beliefs about their relative strength after experiencing an initial success.

Effects of incentive framing on performance and effort: evidence from a medically framed experiment

We study the effects on performance of incentives framed as gains or losses, as well as the effort channels through which individuals increase performance. We also explore potential spill-over effects on a non-incentivised activity. Subjects participated in a medically framed real-effort task under one of the three contracts, varying the type of performance incentive received: (1) no incentive; (2) incentive framed as a gain; or (3) incentive framed as a loss. We find that performance improved similarly with incentives framed as losses or gains. However, individuals increase performance differently under the two frames: potential losses increase participants’ performance through a greater attention (fewer mistakes), while bonuses increase the time spent on the rewarded activity. There is no spill-over effect, either negative or positive, on the non-incentivised activity. We discuss the meaning and implications of our results for the design of performance contracts.

Las rectorías parroquiales en la ciudad de Córdoba durante el Antiguo Régimen: acercamiento a la cuestión

ResumenSi poco estudiado ha sido el estrato más bajo del clero en la ciudad de Córdoba, el pequeño núcleo que formaban los rectores parroquiales aún menos. Estas rectorías, de importancia supina para la labor pastoral y la administración de sacramentos, parecen no tener una forma definida durante la época moderna en Córdoba. La cuestión de su definición es el objeto de este artículo, para lo que se han consultado las constituciones sinodales de la diócesis, así como diversa información de archivo. Su carácter beneficial o no, así como la concesión de la cura animarum centran el debate. La adaptación al modelo tridentino de rectoría parroquial exigió un verdadero esfuerzo para la administración diocesana, que debió lidiar con las reticencias y alegaciones de una empoderada Universidad de Beneficiados que se había aprovechado de la indefinición de este cargo en la ciudad de Córdoba. Por ello, se destaca un punto de inflexión en esta situación en 1648, cuando el obispo Pimentel, animado desde Roma, plantea un modelo de patronato para estas rectorías que permitan la manutención de sus titulares sin el perjuicio de modificar cualquier reparto del diezmo parroquial, que hubiera supuesto una mayor oposición a la que ya hubo durante un siglo después.AbstractIf little studied has been the lower stratum of the clergy in the city of Córdoba, the small nucleus that made up the parish rectors even less. These rectories, of supine importance for pastoral work and the administration of the sacraments, seem to have no definite form during modern times in Córdoba. The question of its definition is the object of this article, for which the synodical constitutions of the diocese has been consulted, as well as various archival information. Its beneficial nature or not, as well as the granting of the cura animarum center the debate. The adaptation to the Tridentine model of parish rectory required a real effort from the diocesan administration, which had to deal with the reluctance and allegations of an empowered Universidad de Beneficiados, that had taken advantage of the lack of definition of this position in the city of Córdoba. For this reason, a turning point in this situation stands out in 1648, when the bishop fray Domingo Pimentel, encouraged from Rome, proposed a model of patronage for these rectories that would allow the maintenance of their holders without the detriment of modifying any distribution of the parish tithe, that it would have supposed a greater opposition to the one that already existed during a century later.