Brown Bag Seminar Industrial Economics

Abstract: We examine experimentally the impact of corporate social responsibility techniques on individuals’ performance and willingness to compete. Our baseline treatment adopts the Niederle-Vesterlund (2007) paradigm whereby individuals perform a task under piece-rate and tournament incentives, followed by an opportunity to determine which of the two payment schemes they prefer. In our main treatment, we introduce social responsibility by informing individuals that 50% of their earnings will be donated to a charity of their own choice. Our findings indicate that, in the social responsibility treatment, women perform better than men under both payment schemes. However, pro-social concerns in the social responsibility treatment make women less willing to take risks. As a result, their willingness to enter the tournament remains unaffected across treatments.