Labor supply responses to work incentives

Last registered on January 22, 2026
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Pre-Trial

Trial Information

General Information

Title
Labor supply responses to work incentives
RCT ID
AEARCTR-0017720
Initial registration date
January 18, 2026

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
January 22, 2026, 1:44 PM EST

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

Locations

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Primary Investigator

Name
Janjala Chirakijja
Affiliation
Monash University
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Other Primary Investigator(s)

PI Name
Pinchuan Ong
PI Affiliation
National University of Singapore Business School
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Additional Trial Information

Status
On going
Start date
2026-01-09
End date
2026-02-28
Keywords
Behavior, Governance, Labor
Additional Keywords
JEL code(s)
Secondary IDs
Prior work
This trial does not extend or rely on any prior RCTs.
Abstract
A large body of research seeks to identify how individuals adjust their labor supply in response to changes in wages and taxes. A prominent contribution in this literature is Kessler and Norton (2015), who use a real-effort laboratory experiment to show that labor supply responses depend on whether changes in net pay are framed as wage reductions or tax increases.

This project revisits and replicates Kessler and Norton’s study using a different methodological approach. Rather than relying on an offline, real-effort laboratory setting, we implement a hypothetical survey experiment conducted online on a representative U.S. sample. Our first objective is to deepen understanding of labor supply responses to wage and tax changes within a controlled but scalable survey environment. Our second, and central, objective is methodological: to assess whether the key findings from real-effort experiments can be reproduced using hypothetical choice experiments, and to identify where and why discrepancies may arise. Overall, this project contributes to the literature by clarifying the limits of hypothetical surveys as substitutes for real-effort experiments and by shedding light on how methodological choices influence measured labor supply responses.
External Link(s)

Registration Citation

Citation
Chirakijja, Janjala and Pinchuan Ong. 2026. "Labor supply responses to work incentives." AEA RCT Registry. January 22. https://doi.org/10.1257/rct.17720-1.0
Sponsors & Partners
Experimental Details

Interventions

Intervention(s)
Intervention Start Date
2026-01-09
Intervention End Date
2026-02-28

Primary Outcomes

Primary Outcomes (end points)
Differential labor supply responses to wage versus tax framings in a hypothetical choice experiment
Primary Outcomes (explanation)

Secondary Outcomes

Secondary Outcomes (end points)
Secondary Outcomes (explanation)

Experimental Design

Experimental Design
We conduct a hypothetical choice experiment embedded in an online survey administered to a sample of U.S. residents. Respondents are presented with two independent hypothetical job scenarios and are asked to indicate their preferred work volume and working hours. To facilitate informed decision-making, respondents first interact with a web-based task that allows them to experience the nature, difficulty, and speed of the hypothetical work. Following this interaction, respondents report their intended work effort and time allocation.

In each hypothetical job scenario, participants are randomly assigned to either a wage-framing treatment or a tax-framing treatment, where both framings imply an identical reduction in net wages. Participants in the tax-framing treatment are also asked to report their effort choices when taxes go to the US government as opposed to the experimenter. The survey further collects detailed information on respondents’ demographic and educational characteristics, political views, pro-social preferences, and perceptions of tax policies. This design allows us to compare labor supply responses across wage and tax framings while assessing the extent to which hypothetical survey methods replicate findings from real-effort laboratory experiments.
Experimental Design Details
Not available
Randomization Method
The randomization is done by the survey platform (Qualtrics).
Randomization Unit
Individual
Was the treatment clustered?
No

Experiment Characteristics

Sample size: planned number of clusters
200 individuals
Sample size: planned number of observations
200 observations
Sample size (or number of clusters) by treatment arms
50
Minimum detectable effect size for main outcomes (accounting for sample design and clustering)
Supporting Documents and Materials
IRB

Institutional Review Boards (IRBs)

IRB Name
Faculty Ethics Review Committee NUS Business School
IRB Approval Date
2025-10-13
IRB Approval Number
000788
Analysis Plan