Can Paying Employees to Quit Boost Motivation? Evidence from a Lab Experiment
Year: 2025
Type: report
Abstract: We investigate whether pay-to-quit incentives can enhance worker productivity by conducting an online laboratory experiment with 1,000 participants. Subjects were randomly assigned to either a control condition, which offered no financial inducement to quit, or to a treatment condition in which they received a one-time offer of CHF 5 to exit the task. Our findings indicate that participants who reject the quit offer complete, on average, 33% more tasks than those in the control group. The evidence suggests that the foregone quit payment establishes a salient reference point, thereby inducing increased effort and a higher likelihood of surpassing performance thresholds. This study contributes to both behavioral decision research and the practice of personnel management by elucidating how a seemingly counterintuitive incentive can have dual effects: screening out less committed employees and motivating those who remain to invest greater effort.
Authors: Focacci, Chiara Natalie, Gesche, Tobias, Kim, Henry, Ayres, Ian, Stremitzer, Alexander
Language: English
Subfield: Safety Research
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W6966673820
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