Eventi del

15 2017 12:45 - 14:00
Meeting room 4.E4.SR03 Via Roentgen, 1

Taxes and Motivation: Lessons from the Lab

GAL ZAUBERMAN, Yale School of Management

Taxes are ubiquitous and generally disliked. Previous research not only demonstrates people’s negative tax attitudes, but also suggests that people avoid taxes beyond the financial penalty associated with them (i.e., the monetary cost of the tax). The present research proposes and shows that, although people predict that income taxes will be demotivating, the actual relationship between income taxes, productivity, and satisfaction is not straightforward. Across four incentive-compatible studies (total N=2,506), we show that people’s predictions of how different income tax schedules will influence productivity and satisfaction do not match how people actually respond in an experimental pay-per-performance setting. Further, we demonstrate that people’s productivity is more sensitive to changes in wages than changes in taxes, but that participants’ satisfaction is significantly affected by both wages and taxes.