Frontline employees' responses to performance feedback under different performace incentives

Last registered on November 03, 2025
View Trial History

Pre-Trial

Trial Information

General Information

Title
Frontline employees' responses to performance feedback under different performace incentives
RCT ID
AEARCTR-0016571
Initial registration date
November 02, 2025

Initial registration date is when the trial was registered.

It corresponds to when the registration was submitted to the Registry to be reviewed for publication.

First published
November 03, 2025, 10:40 AM EST

First published corresponds to when the trial was first made public on the Registry after being reviewed.

Locations

Country
China
Region

Primary Investigator

Name
Huangbin Wu
Affiliation
Contact Primary Investigator

Other Primary Investigator(s)

Additional Trial Information

Status
In development
Start date
2025-10-27
End date
2026-01-15
Keywords
Behavior, Governance
Additional Keywords
JEL code(s)
Secondary IDs
Prior work
This trial does not extend or rely on any prior RCTs.
Abstract
This study investigates the potential effects of performance incentives on performance behaviors of frontline employees (school teachers). Using a experiment, we explore different performance behaviors of teachers under distinct performance incentives. We discuss five types of performance incentives in our study. Under a given performance incentive, the teachers will receive performance reports, and then teachers need to assess performance report and further make decisions.
External Link(s)

Registration Citation

Citation
Wu, Huangbin. 2025. "Frontline employees' responses to performance feedback under different performace incentives." AEA RCT Registry. November 03. https://doi.org/10.1257/rct.16571-1.0
Sponsors & Partners
Experimental Details

Interventions

Intervention(s)
Intervention Start Date
2025-11-04
Intervention End Date
2025-11-29

Primary Outcomes

Primary Outcomes (end points)
performance evaluation, preference
Primary Outcomes (explanation)

Secondary Outcomes

Secondary Outcomes (end points)
Secondary Outcomes (explanation)

Experimental Design

Experimental Design
There are five treatments in our study: Progress Reward System, Regression Punishment System, Top-Performers Reward System, Bottom-Performers Reward System, Non-Reward-and-Punishment System (control).

Under a given treatment, teachers will receives performance reports. Performance reports detail the two types of performance gaps (historical and social). Regarding historical performance gap, current performance may be higher than or lower than past performance. Regarding social performance gap, current performance may be higher than or lower than average performance. Then, teachers need to assess the performance and make decisions.
Experimental Design Details
Not available
Randomization Method
randomization done by a computer
Randomization Unit
teacher
Was the treatment clustered?
No

Experiment Characteristics

Sample size: planned number of clusters
The treatment is not clustered.
Sample size: planned number of observations
More than 1000 teacher will be invited to participate. Similar studies have had a response rate around 50-65 %, thus around 500 responses can be expected.
Sample size (or number of clusters) by treatment arms
100 teachers 'Progress Reward System'
100 teachers 'Regression Punishment System'
100 teachers 'Top-Performers Reward System'
100 teachers 'Bottom-Performers Reward System'
100 teachers 'Non-Reward-and-Punishment System'
Minimum detectable effect size for main outcomes (accounting for sample design and clustering)
Supporting Documents and Materials
IRB

Institutional Review Boards (IRBs)

IRB Name
Science and Technology Ethics Committee, University of Chinese Academy of SciencesAcademy of
IRB Approval Date
2025-10-30
IRB Approval Number
UCASSTEC25-048
Analysis Plan