Sanctions are widely used to promote compliance in principal-agent-relationships. While there is ample evidence confirming the predicted positive incentive effect of sanctions, it has also been shown that imposing sanctions may in fact reduce compliance by crowding-out intrinsic motivation. We...

We investigate how bonus payments affect satisfaction and performance of managers in a large, multinational company. We find that falling behind a naturally occurring reference point for bonus comparisons reduces satisfaction and subsequent performance. The effects tend to be mitigated if...

Against the background of demographic change and skill shortages continuing vocational training is of great significance in Germany. However, the training effectiveness is mostly assessed only at the end of a training program or several months after the training. Since in continuing vocational...

In this article the author takes issue with the recurrent reliance on job satisfaction to explain job-related effort and performance. The disappointing findings in this tradition are explained by lack of compatibility between job satisfaction - a very broad attitude - and the more specific...

Trait-based personality psychology and economics have taken different approaches to understanding individual differences, with the former emphasizing variables derived from the factor analysis of trait assessments, and the latter emphasizing variables derived from formal decision theory. In a...

Die Legitimität von Ungleichheit in der Einkommensverteilung basiert in Marktökonomien auf den Annahmen einer Dominanz individueller Leistungskomponenten für die Einkommenshöhe und der unterstellten Existenz von Chancengleichheit.Die Überprüfung der empirischen Relevanz dieser Annahmen...

In neoclassical economic theory the level of individual income is predominantly determined by individual job performance. Thus high incomes reflect the high marginal productivity of labour of the affluent working population. While the scientific research of poverty has a long tradition, nearly...