Do norms on contribution behavior affect intrinsic motivation? Field-experimental evidence from Germany

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Boyer, Pierre C.; Dwenger, Nadja; Rincke, Johannes
• 署名单位: Institut Polytechnique de Paris; Ecole Polytechnique; ENSAE Paris; Universite Paris Saclay; University Hohenheim; University of Erlangen Nuremberg
• 刊物名称: JOURNAL OF PUBLIC ECONOMICS
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0047-2727
• DOI: 10.1016/j.jpubeco.2016.10.003
• 发表日期: 2016
• 页码: 140-153
• 关键词: intrinsic motivation; Crowding out; Charitable giving; NORMS; taxes; public goods; Randomized field experiment

摘要

This paper studies how imposing norms on contribution behavior affects individuals' intrinsic motivation. We consider the church levy, which the Catholic Church in Germany collects as a charitable donation, despite the fact that the levy is legally a tax. We design a randomized field experiment with treatments informing individuals that the levy is a tax. We demonstrate that treatment effects differ across motivational types. Among weakly intrinsically motivated individuals, communicating the legal norm results in a significant crowd-out of intrinsic motivation. In contrast, strongly intrinsically motivated individuals do not show any treatment response. (C) 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.