Date of Award
Fall 12-20-2016
Document Type
Thesis
Degree Name
Master of Arts (MA)
Department
Economics
First Advisor
Karna Basu
Second Advisor
Ingmar Nyman
Academic Program Adviser
Randall K Filer
Abstract
This research uses an experimental design to study if the pattern and positioning of rewards influence the amount of effort participants put in. The three key hypotheses tested here are: 1) are people more likely to complete a task if the incentives are given in more regular intervals, 2) do uncertainty of reward timing hurt or help in maintaining motivation, 3) is intrinsic motivation more influential than the patterns in which incentives are structured? The treatments in this experiment are created by varying the reward structure of candies and pens in exchange of a simple math test completion. Among the five treatments, participants responded best to the treatment that gave all the rewards at the end.
Recommended Citation
Khan, Shamima, "How Should We Motivate Effort" (2016). CUNY Academic Works.
https://academicworks.cuny.edu/hc_sas_etds/106
Included in
Advertising and Promotion Management Commons, Behavioral Economics Commons, Organizational Behavior and Theory Commons