インセンティブについて考える

●Steven Kerr（1975）, “On the Folly of Rewarding A, While Hoping for B”（Academy of Management Journal, vol.18(4) pp.769-783）

Managers who complain about lack of motivation in their workers might do well to consider the possibility that the reward systems they have installed are paying off for behavior other than what they are seeking. This, in part, is what happened in Vietnam, and this is what regularly frustrates societal efforts to bring about honest politicians and civic-minded managers.

A first step for such managers might be to explore what types of behavior are currently being rewarded. Chances are excellent that these managers will be surprised by what they find that their firms are not rewarding what they assume they are. In fact, such undesirable behavior by organizational members as they have observed may be explained largely by the reward systems in use.

This is not to say that all organizational behavior is determined by formal rewards and punishments. Certainly it is true that in the absence of formal reinforcement some soldiers will be patriotic, some players will be team oriented, and some employees will care about doing their job well. The point, however, is that in such cases the rewarder is not causing the behavior desired but is only a fortunate bystander. For an organization to act upon its members, the formal reward system should positively reinforce desired behavior, not constitute an obstacle to be overcome.

●Russell Roberts, “Incentives Matter”（Library of Economics and Liberty, June 5, 2006）

Despite a common belief that economics is about money, non-monetary incentives can be just as important as monetary incentives in affecting behavior.

So money isn't all that matters. Adding time to the list of incentives isn't enough either. People care about their reputation and fame and their conscience. They care about glory and patriotism and love. All of these can act as incentives.

When an economist says that incentives matter, the non-economist sometimes hears only that people respond to prices. But what the economist really means is that holding everything else constant—the amount of fame or shame, glory or humiliation—and increase the monetary reward, and people will do more of it. Lower the monetary reward while holding those non-monetary factors constant and people will do less of it.

●Glen Whitman, “Slavery, Snakes, and Switching：The Role of Incentives in Creating Unintended Consequences”（Library of Economics and Liberty, May 7, 2007）

A person with little or no economics training often ignores incentives entirely, by treating people like robots who just respond to their programming. They keep on doing what they're doing, however much we alter their surroundings. A lousy economist regards people as more sophisticated robots. They change their behavior in response to changes in their incentives, but only in specified and highly predictable ways. A good economist realizes that human beings are imaginative and clever. They change their behavior in response to incentives in both predictable and unpredictable ways, constantly seeking to improve their lives in light of new conditions.

●Rob Norton, “Unintended Consequences”（『The Concise Encyclopedia of Economics』 in Library of Economics and Liberty）

第2次世界大戦時とベトナム戦争時とにおけるアメリカ軍兵士の士気の違いは、愛国心や「公」の精神（＝モラル）の違いに基づくものではなく（あるいはそれに加えて）個々の兵士が直面していたインセンティブの違いに基づいている（by Steven Kerr）等々面白い話題が満載です。経済問題に限定されない広範囲にわたるエピソードを通じて「Incentives Matter（＝インセンティブが重要なのだ）」とはどういうことなのか、その意味するところを味わってみてはいかがでしょう。