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STOCHASTIC REWARDS AND WORK PERSISTENCE

Last registered on June 18, 2021
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Pre-Trial

Trial Information

General Information

Title
STOCHASTIC REWARDS AND WORK PERSISTENCE
RCT ID
AEARCTR-0007272
Initial registration date
March 08, 2021

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
March 09, 2021, 6:21 AM EST

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

Last updated
June 18, 2021, 5:48 AM EDT

Last updated is the most recent time when changes to the trial's registration were published.

Locations

Country
United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland
Region

Primary Investigator

Name
Brice Corgnet
Affiliation
EM Lyon Business School
Contact Primary Investigator

Other Primary Investigator(s)

Additional Trial Information

Status
In development
Start date
2021-06-15
End date
2021-12-31
Keywords
Behavior
Additional Keywords
JEL code(s)
Incentives, Work Addiction, Uncertainty
Secondary IDs
C92, D87, D91, M54
Abstract
We study the effect of stochastic rewards on workers' decisions to continue working.
External Link(s)

Registration Citation

Citation
Corgnet, Brice. 2021. "STOCHASTIC REWARDS AND WORK PERSISTENCE." AEA RCT Registry. June 18. https://doi.org/10.1257/rct.7272-1.2000000000000002
Sponsors & Partners
Experimental Details

Interventions

Intervention(s)
Intervention Start Date
2021-09-15
Intervention End Date
2021-12-31

Primary Outcomes

Primary Outcomes (end points)
Our primary outcome is the likelihood of quitting the work task depending on the various conditions.
Primary Outcomes (explanation)

Secondary Outcomes

Secondary Outcomes (end points)
Secondary Outcomes (explanation)

Experimental Design

Experimental Design
This experiment is conducted online with subjects registered at the University of Nottigham.
This is a 2x2 factorial design with two dimensions and two levels per dimension. The first dimensions regards the uncertainty of rewards (certain or stochastic) and the use of an attention popup (present or absent).

All treatments use a real-effort task in which participants have to make summations of five one-digit numbers for up to 60 minutes. They can quit the task at any moment in time by clicking the corresponding button. After quitting the task, participants are not able to go back to the task screen and can terminate the experiment. Before the experiment ends, all subjects are asked questions about self-reported stress, attention to the task and enjoyment of the task. In addition, they are also administered the IMI (Intrinsic Motivation Inventory) questionnaire. In a companion trial, we independently measures subjects' cognitive skills (cognitive reflection and inhibitory control) along with their addiction to work/study (Bergen work addiction scale).

In the certain treatment (baseline), participants receive exactly 2 tokens per correct answer. In the stochastic treatment, the number of tokens received by participants for each correct summation follows a random pattern. The token value is an integer number between 1 and 23 with equal probability. The token value was drawn after each correct summation, and participants knew the stochastic process generating the token value. In all treatments, the reward is divided by an exchange rate equal to 1, 2, 4, 8, 80, and 500 in the six 5-minute periods of the experiment. The two treatments entail the same expected value for the rewards thus only differing on the dispersion of rewards.

The other dimension of the design varies the presence of a popup warning subjects of a change in the exchange rate. This second features implies that we conduct four treatments: certain (with and without an attention popup) and stochastic (with and without an attention popup).

In a firth treatment, we ask subjects before starting the experiment whether they want to participant in the certain or stochastic treatment (without a popup). The rest of the experiment is the same as described above.

Experimental Design Details
Randomization Method
Computerized random draws.
Randomization Unit
At the individual level.
Was the treatment clustered?
No

Experiment Characteristics

Sample size: planned number of clusters
We aim at recruiting 70 subjects per treatment.
Sample size: planned number of observations
We aim at recruiting 70 subjects per treatment so 350 in total.
Sample size (or number of clusters) by treatment arms
n=70 by treatment
Minimum detectable effect size for main outcomes (accounting for sample design and clustering)
Supporting Documents and Materials
IRB

Institutional Review Boards (IRBs)

IRB Name
GATE-Lab Review Board for ethical standards in research
IRB Approval Date
2021-02-15
IRB Approval Number
2021-03
Analysis Plan

Analysis Plan Documents

Analysis

MD5: e77ebbeca89ed967a5d3ba64dbc02210

SHA1: a9edff9bc81470ac31c9e7b98abe66f0766226e6

Uploaded At: March 01, 2021

Post-Trial

Post Trial Information

Study Withdrawal

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Intervention

Is the intervention completed?
No
Data Collection Complete
Data Publication

Data Publication

Is public data available?
No

Program Files

Program Files
Reports, Papers & Other Materials

Relevant Paper(s)

Reports & Other Materials