The Economist, 12.10.2024 | Bartleby
“A couple of recent studies underline the risk that incentives will have unintended consequences. One, from Jakob Altifian and Dirk Sliwka of the University of Cologne and Timo Vogelsang of the Frankfurt School of Finance and Management, tested the effect of paying an attendance bonus on levels of absenteeism. They did so by randomly assigning apprentice workers at a German retailer to two groups which offered a financial reward or some extra holiday, respectively, for a perfect attendance record. Neither reward reduced absenteeism, and the monetary bonus had precisely the opposite effect: it actually increased rates of absenteeism by 50% on average.”