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Policy makers believe money motivates more than it does
Sebastian Jilke1, Florian Keppeler2,3, John Ternovski4
1Georgetown University, 3700 O St NW, Washington, DC, USA. sebastian.jilke@georgetown.edu.
Scientific Reports
|January 22, 2024
Summary
Financial incentives may not effectively boost public goods contributions like vaccinations. Policymakers overestimated incentive impacts, but a field experiment showed no significant effect, highlighting potential pitfalls.
Area of Science:
- Behavioral Economics
- Public Policy
- Health Economics
Background:
- Financial incentives are a common policy tool to encourage public goods contributions.
- Existing literature suggests financial incentives can be ineffective or counterproductive.
- Policymaker perceptions of incentive effectiveness may be overly optimistic.
Purpose of the Study:
- To assess whether policymakers' predictions of financial incentive effectiveness align with empirical results.
- To test the impact of a specific financial incentive on COVID-19 vaccination rates.
- To identify conditions under which financial incentives may fail.
Main Methods:
- Survey of German local government officials on predicted incentive effects.
- Field experiment in Ravensburg, Germany, testing a financial incentive on vaccination.
- Analysis of vaccination data for 41,548 inhabitants.
Main Results:
- Policymakers predicted a 15.3 percentage point increase in vaccination due to the incentive.
- The field experiment demonstrated a null effect of the financial incentive on vaccination rates.
- A significant discrepancy exists between predicted and actual incentive impacts.
Conclusions:
- Financial incentives may not be as effective as policymakers assume for promoting public goods.
- Understanding the limitations and potential failures of financial incentives is crucial.
- Educating policymakers on these pitfalls is essential for effective public policy design.
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