Motivating knowledge agents: Can incentive pay overcome social distance? 2010-2015

DOI

In a randomised field experiment undertaken across 151 villages in South India, local agents were hired to spread information about a public health insurance programme. The resulting article studies the interaction of incentive pay with intrinsic motivation and social distance. It analyses theoretically as well as empirically the effect of incentive pay when agents have not only pro-social objectives but also preferences over dealing with one social group relative to another.

A field experiment conducted across 151 villages in Karnataka, India, in the context of a government-subsidized health insurance scheme aimed at the rural poor. In a random subsample of the villages (the treatment groups), one local woman per village was recruited to spread information about the scheme. These ‘knowledge agents’ were randomly assigned to either a flat-pay or an incentive-pay contract. Under the latter contract, the agents' pay depended on how a random sample of eligible households in their village performed when surveyed and orally presented with a knowledge test about the scheme

Identifier
DOI https://doi.org/10.5255/UKDA-SN-854126
Metadata Access https://datacatalogue.cessda.eu/oai-pmh/v0/oai?verb=GetRecord&metadataPrefix=oai_ddi25&identifier=4cf3151d17190c26d3c4c445b6deb477904d3ece83ebdd083f9aabc4d72cceb0
Provenance
Creator Berg, E, University of Bristol; Ghatak, M, London School of Economics; R Manjula, R, Institute for Social and Economic Change; Rajasekhar, D, Institute for Social and Economic Change; Roy, S, Kings College London
Publisher UK Data Service
Publication Year 2020
Funding Reference Economic and Social Research Council
Rights Erlend Berg, University of Bristol. Maitreesh Ghatak, London School of Economics. R R Manjula, Institute for Social and Economic Change. D Rajasekhar, Institute for Social and Economic Change. Sanchari Roy, Kings College London; The Data Collection is available from an external repository. Access is available via Related Resources.
OpenAccess true
Representation
Resource Type Numeric; Text
Discipline Economics; Social and Behavioural Sciences
Spatial Coverage United Kingdom; India