• AEA
  • About the AEA
  • Committees
  • Honors & Awards
  • For Graduate Students
  • For Undergrad Students
  • News & Notes
  • Officers
  • General Information
  • Minutes
  • UA Questionnaire
  • Continuing Education
  • Directory of Members
  • Call for Papers
  • Media
• Journals
  • AEJ: Applied Economics
  • AEJ: Economic Policy
  • AEJ: Macroeconomics
  • AEJ: Microeconomics
  • American Economic Review
  • Journal of Economic Literature
  • Journal of Economic Perspectives
  • eTOCs
  • Virtual Field Journals
  • Institutional Subscriptions
  • AEA Journals on JSTOR
  • Ads in Journals
  • Back Issues Order Forms
  • Copyright & Permissions
• Annual Meeting
  • Submissions
  • Registration/Housing
  • Preliminary Program
  • ASSA 2013 App
  • Annual Meeting Papers
  • Annual Meeting Webcasts
  • Disclosure Code Information
  • Exhibitors
  • Exhibitors & Advertisers Forms
  • Special Event Form
  • Continuing Education
  • Econ-Harmony
  • Archive of Past Programs
• EconLit
  • EconLit Access
  • EconLit Deskop Link
  • EconLit for Members
  • JEL Codes Guide
  • JEL Classifications
  • Journal List
  • Contacts/Corrections
  • Upcoming Exhibits
  • Document Types
  • Search Hints
• Jobs
  • JOE Listings
  • Submit a JOE Listing
  • Job Market Signaling
  • Job Market Scramble
  • Available Retired Faculty
• Resources
  • Resources For Economists
  • RFE Abridged Contents
  • RFE Search
  • RFE Conferences
  • Econ Search Engine
• Members
  • Member Login
  • Become a Member
  • Directory of Members
  • EconLit for Members
  • AEA Journals on JSTOR
  • Econ-Harmony
  • Annual Meeting Webcasts
  • Browse JEL Indexes
  • Virtual Field Journals
  • Institutional Subscriptions

View Settings

This setting lets you change the way you view articles. You can choose to have articles open in a dialog window, a new tab, or directly in the same window.

Open in Dialog
Open in New Tab
Open in same window

Journal of Economic Perspectives: Vol. 21 No. 4 (Fall 2007)

JEP Volume. 21, Issue 4 | Previous ArticleNext Article

Expand

Quick Tools:

Print Article Summary Email Link to this Article

To Email:

From Email:

Message:

Email Link to Article Change Captcha Export Citation

BibTeX EndNote Refer/BibIX RIS Tab-Delimited Export Sign up for Email Alerts Follow us on Twitter

Explore:

JEP - All Issues

Paying Respect

Article Citation

Ellingsen, Tore, and Magnus Johannesson. 2007. "Paying Respect." Journal of Economic Perspectives, 21(4): 135-150.

DOI: 10.1257/jep.21.4.135

Abstract

Why do people work? Economic theory generally, and the principal-agent model specifically, emphasize the role of material incentives. But many academics, for example, work diligently year after year for a nearly fixed real salary, continuing to work hard as they approach retirement, although financial incentives are usually absent. We will argue that while economists have been right to focus on incentives, they have been wrong to focus so exclusively on material incentives. While workers appreciate monetary rewards, they also get utility from what (they believe that) others think about them. We lay out a body of evidence that, taken as a whole, makes a strong case that respect matters in the workplace, above and beyond material rewards. We discuss evidence that workers respond to attention, symbolic rewards, and trust -- and even that material incentives in some cases lead to less effort. Finally, we argue that many of these observations can be captured in a standard principal-agent model, once the principals and the agents are assumed to care about respect or esteem as well as money.

Article Full-Text Access

Full-text Article (Complimentary)

Authors

Ellingsen, Tore
Johannesson, Magnus

Comments

View Comments on This Article (0) | Login to post a comment