Related Incentives Research Articles

Integration of Solar Process Heat in Industries: A Review

Industrial manufacturing approaches are associated with processing materials that consume a significant amount of thermal energy, termed as industrial process heat. Industrial sectors consume a substantial amount of energy for process heating over a wide range of temperatures (up to 400 °C) from agriculture, HVAC to power plants. However, the intensive industrial application of fossil fuels causes unfavorable environmental effects that cannot be ignored. To address this issue, green energy sources have manifested their potential as economical and pollution-free energy sources. Nevertheless, the adoption of solar industrial process heating systems is still limited due to a lack of knowledge in the design/installation aspects, reluctance to experience the technical/infrastructural changes, low price of fossil fuels, and lack of relative incentives. For successful solar process heat integration in industries, a proper understanding of the associated design factors is essential. This paper comprehensively reviews the integration strategies of solar industrial process heating systems, appraisal of the integration points, different aspects of solar collectors, installed thermal power, and thermal storage volume covering case studies, reports and reviews. The integration aspects of solar process heat, findings, and obstacles of several projects from the literature are also highlighted. Finally, the integration locations of SHIP systems are compared for different industrial sectors to find out the most used integration point for a certain sector and operation. It was found that for the food, beverage, and agriculture sector, 51% of solar process heat integration occurs at the supply level and 27.3% at the process-level.

New active blockholders and adjustment of CEO relative incentive ratios

We study the emergence of blockholders as an important mechanism that corrects deviations from target CEO relative debt-to-equity incentive ratios. We find that a new active blockholder more likely emerges when a firm deviates from target; deviations fall during the period the blockholder owns shares; and deviations fall more when the blockholder appoints a director to the firm. When a firm is above (below) target, blockholders are associated with less (more) inside debt and more (no change in) inside equity, implying there is no “one-size-fits-all” compensation change for blockholders. Outside debt and equity increase for both above and below target firms.

Morale and Debt Dynamics

This paper shows that debt undermines relational incentives and harms worker morale. We build a dynamic model of a manager who uses limited financial resources to simultaneously repay a creditor and motivate a worker. If the manager can divert or misuse revenue, then debt makes the manager less willing to follow through on promised rewards, leading to low worker effort. In profit-maximizing equilibria, the firm prioritizes repaying its debts, leading to gradual increases in effort and wages. These dynamics can persist even after debts have been fully repaid. Consistent with this analysis, we document that a firm’s financial leverage is negatively related to measures of employee morale, wages, and productivity. This paper was accepted by Joshua Gans, business strategy.

Financial incentives for bowel cancer screening: Results from a mixed methods study in the United Kingdom.

The purpose of bowel cancer screening is to test for signs of cancer before symptoms develop. Financial incentives are one potential method to increase participation rates. Few studies have tested incentives in relation to bowel screening in the United Kingdom (UK). The current research explored reactions to different financial incentives to participate in population-level bowel cancer screening in a UK sample. An online mixed methods study. Recruitment was via a study recruitment website (https://prolific.ac/). 499 participants (aged 60-74 years) completed a survey on invitations for population-level bowel cancer screening using different levels of financial incentives. Respondents were generally positive about the use of financial incentives. A £10 voucher was most frequently selected as the appropriate amount to incentivise screening participation. The current invitation method with no voucher was judged to be most acceptable but suggested to produce the lowest likelihood of others participating. Offering a £10 voucher that the NHS would not be charged for if not used was the second most acceptable invitation method. There were few differences between invitation methods on own perceived likelihood of participation in bowel screening. Offering a £10 voucher was seen as leading to the greatest likelihood of others participating in bowel screening. Findings were largely unaffected by participant demographics. The use of small financial incentives to increase bowel cancer screening uptake was generally well received. Impacts of incentives on actual bowel screening rates in UK samples need to be established in the light of the current findings.

The effects of citation-based research evaluation schemes on self-citation behavior

We investigate the changes in the self-citation behavior of Italian professors following the introduction of a citation-based incentive scheme, for national accreditation to academic appointments. Previous contributions on self-citation behavior have either focused on small samples or relied on simple models, not controlling for enough confounding factors. The present work adopts a complex statistics model implemented on bibliometric individual data for over 15,000 Italian professors. Controlling for a number of covariates (number of citable papers published by the author; presence of international authors; number of co-authors; degree of the professor's specialization), the average increase in the number of self-citations per paper following introduction of the national scientific accreditation (ASN) is of 9.5%. The increase is common to all disciplines and academic ranks, albeit with diverse magnitude. Moreover, the increase is sensitive to the relative incentive, depending on the status of the scholar with respect to the ASN. A further analysis shows that there is much heterogeneity in the individual patterns of self-citing behavior, albeit with very few outliers.

Supplemental Material for Relational Incentives Theory

Supplemental Material for Relational Incentives Theory

Transaction Cost and Agency Perspectives on Eco-Certification of Existing Buildings: A Study of Hong Kong

Eco-certification schemes are usually launched with various incentives provided by local governments to facilitate green building development and building energy retrofits. A number of barriers to building energy retrofitting have been identified in previous literature, while the barriers to the eco-certification of existing buildings are under-researched. Drawing on a set of building data retrievable from the BEAM Society and other sources, we carried out an analysis and found the building energy retrofitting, as well as the certification process, were unwelcomed in multi-owned residential buildings. The identified shortfall is put forward from the perspectives of transaction cost theory and agency theory. The findings reveal that high transaction costs incurred during negotiations and coordination among a large number of co-owners within a typical apartment building can outweigh the benefits of retrofitting and eco-certification. Besides, the remuneration structure of third-party property management agents discourages agents from facilitating co-owners to initiate retrofitting. This study provides significant implications for policymakers to understand the concerns of building owners and managers over the decisions and the processes of both the building energy retrofits and eco-certification. The problems and barriers unveiled in this study will facilitate the refining of current energy efficiency policies and related incentives designs.

WAGE BILL AND FINANCIAL PERFORMANCE OF LEVEL 5 FAITH BASED HOSPITALS IN NAIROBI METROPOLITAN, KENYA

Purpose: The main objective of this study was to examine the effect of wage bills on financial performance of Level 5 faith based hospitals in Nairobi Metropolitan, Kenya.
 Materials and Methods: A descriptive survey was used in this study. The target population comprised of 6 Level 5 faith based hospitals, 30 staff members in Finance departments and 6 HR Managers. In total, the target population was 36. Census technique was used to select all the 36 respondents to participate in the study. Questionnaires were used to collect the data from the respondents whereas the financial statements were also obtained from the hospitals. Cross sectional technique was used to obtain data from the financial statements of the 6 Level 5 Faith Based Hospitals. Quantitative approach of analysis was used in the study whereby descriptive and inferential statistics were involved. The data was analyzed with the use of SPSS and summarized in frequencies and percentages. The summarized data was presented using figures and tables.
 Results: The findings showed that salaries affected the financial performance of the faith based hospitals to some extent. Provision of performance related incentives and allowances affect the financial performance of the faith based hospitals to a greater extent. Majority of the respondents were positive that wage policy has an effect on the financial performance of faith based hospitals. Basic salary (Beta=.298) and wage policy (Beta=.364) were found to be positively related to the financial performance of faith based hospitals. On the other hand, performance related incentives and allowances had a negative inverse association. It was also found that majority of the hospitals are providing a wage bill between 36-40%. This is fairly good because it is close to the internationally accepted wage bill percentage standard of 35%.
 Unique contribution to theory, practice and policy: Hospital wage bills should not exceed 40 per cent of the total revenue because it may lead to delayed payment of salaries or compromising some expenditure due to financial pressure.

Higher socioeconomic status does not predict decreased prosocial behavior in a field experiment

Does higher socioeconomic status predict decreased prosocial behavior? Methodological issues such as the reliance of survey studies on self-reported measures of prosociality, the insufficient control of relative incentives in experiments, and the use of non-random samples, have prevented researchers from ruling out that there is a negative association between socioeconomic status (SES) and prosociality. Here, we present results from a field experiment on the willingness of unaware individuals of different SES to undertake an effortful prosocial task—returning a misdelivered letter. Specifically, using the rental or sale value of homes as indicators of SES, we randomly selected households of high and low SES and misdelivered envelopes to them. Despite controlling for numerous covariates and performing a series of ancillary tests, we fail to find any evidence that higher SES predicts decreased prosocial behavior. Instead, we find that misdelivered letters are substantially more likely to be returned from high rather than low SES households.

Impact of ICT on Economic Growth: Case of Central Asian Countries

The Government of Uzbekistan declared the year of 2020 as “The Year of Science, Education and Development of the Digital Economy” and is implementing the State Program, aiming at to liberalize the economy, improve market related incentives, encourage private enterprises, to reduce the role of the public sector by introducing ICT and Internet, developing digital economy. In order to understand the causal relationship between ICT investment and economic growth researchers have exert many effort in the world. The results are different: in developed countries the impact of ICT on economic growth is more powerful than in developing countries. This paper aims at finding and measuring causality between Economic growth and ICT development in emerging economies of Central Asian Countries by using panel data over the period of 19 years from 2000 – 2018. The research findings revealed that inflation, trade openness, final consumption expenditure and unemployment impact significantly on GDP per capita in Central Asian countries. The econometric analysis showed that ICT affects to GDP per capita positively and significantly: one percent increase in ICT contributes to GDP per capita 0.1669 percent (fixed broadband subscriptions) and 0.2218 percent (internet usage). Thus we concluded that information and communication technology together with economic indicators are key part of economic development in Central Asian countries. Reduction of inflation and unemployment allow expanding businesses, to create new job places in the digital economy.

Theoretical Foundations of Relational Incentive Contracts

This article describes the emerging game-theoretic framework for modeling long-term contractual relationships with moral hazard. The framework combines self-enforcement and external enforcement, accommodating alternative assumptions regarding how actively the parties initially set and renegotiate the terms of their contract. A progression of theoretical components is reviewed, building from the recursive formulation of equilibrium continuation values in repeated games. A principal-agent setting serves as a running example.

Home Sweet Home: the Effect of Sugar Protectionism on Emigration in Italy, 1876‐1913

AbstractProtectionist policies have often relevant effects at the regional level. This paper analyzes the impact of sugar import duties on emigration in nineteenth century Italy. Both for climatic reasons and the nature of the soil, the cultivation and processing of sugar beets was geographically concentrated. Our theoretical model illustrates how a tariff that favours local producers may affect residents' incentives to migrate abroad. Using a new set historical data, the predictions of the model are tested through quasi‐experimental methods which use the exogenous variation in sugar cultivation across areas to estimate the effect of interest. Results show that protectionism reduced the relative incentive to migrate away from sugar‐producing areas.

Personal Metaphors as Motivational Resources: Boosting Anticipated Incentives and Feelings of Vitality Through a Personal Motto-Goal

Motto-goals describe a desired mind-set and provide a person with a guiding principle of how to approach a personal goal or obligation (e.g., with the inner strength of a bear I am forging ahead). We propose that motto-goals can be conceptionalized as individually created metaphors and that the figurative, metaphorical language and the characteristics of the formation process make them effective in changing the perception of unpleasant personal obligations as more inherently enjoyable and raise vitality levels. To test whether a newly devised minimalistic motto-goal intervention can make goal striving more attractive (stronger anticipation of activity related incentives) and energize goal-oriented action (increase vitality) in relation to an unpleasant obligation, two experimental studies were conducted. In Study 1 the motto-goal condition led to stronger anticipation of activity related incentives and vitality compared to a distraction task. The effect on vitality was partially mediated by a change in feelings of autonomy. Study 2 replicated the effects compared to a placebo intervention and further found motto-goals to be specifically effective in increasing the anticipation of activity related incentives as opposed to outcome related incentives. The results support that applying motto-goals built with a newly developed minimalist motto-goal intervention can influence the subjective experience of individuals faced with a previously unpleasant obligation.

Equity gap in construction contracting: identification and ramifications

PurposeThis study conceptualizes the equity gap (EG) in construction contracting and examines its impact on project performance.Design/methodology/approachThe identification of EG was first summarized from a literature review. A conceptual framework that included EG elements of information, risks, expected return and power asymmetry was then proposed. A study of the Hong Kong–Zhuhai–Macau Bridge supported the existence of EG. The framework was further refined by incorporation of 21 EG identifications. To examine the reliability of the framework, data were collected from 106 senior project professionals to evaluate the extent to which EG identification occurred in their projects. A Partial Least Square–Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM hereafter) analysis was conducted on the collected data.FindingsThe proposed framework was deemed statistically significant. Furthermore, no significant differences were detected between the developer and contractor. The concepts of asset and process specificities suggested that the unaddressed EG may be met with retaliatory behaviors, such as noncooperation, procrastination, opportunism and withdrawal, as the physical works proceed. These behaviors may also hamper project performance.Practical implicationsTo address the EG ex post, it is suggested that relational incentives to balance the power differential be set, reallocation of risks and return and enhancing task programmability for ease of monitoring and performance evaluation.Originality/valueThis study investigates the downside of the EG between the contracting parties. The proposed EG framework informs the project management of critical EG elements and possible methods to narrow the gap ex post. Practical suggestions are also provided to manage construction contracts in general and in the use of incentive schemes to address EG.

ICT and Economic Growth Nexus: Case of Central Asian Countries

The Government of Uzbekistan declared the year of 2020 as “The Year of Science, Education and Development of the Digital Economy” and is implementing the State Program, aiming at to liberalize the economy, improve market related incentives, encourage private enterprises, to reduce the role of the public sector by introducing ICT and Internet, developing digital economy. In order to understand the causal relationship between ICT investment and economic growth researchers have exert many effort in the world. The results are different: in developed countries the impact of ICT on economic growth is more powerful than in developing countries. This paper aims at finding and measuring causality between Economic growth and ICT development in emerging economies of Central Asian Countries by using panel data over the period of 19 years from 2000 – 2018. The research findings revealed that inflation, trade openness, final consumption expenditure and unemployment impact significantly on GDP per capita in Central Asian countries. The econometric analysis showed that ICT affects to GDP per capita positively and significantly: one percent increase in ICT contributes to GDP per capita 0.1669 percent (fixed broadband subscriptions) and 0.2218 percent (internet usage).Thus we concluded that information and communication technology together with economic indicators are key part of economic development in Central Asian countries. Reduction of inflation and unemployment allow expanding businesses, to create new job places in the digital economy.

New Active Blockholders and Adjustment of CEO relative incentive ratios

We study the emergence of blockholders as an important mechanism that corrects deviations from target CEO relative debt-to-equity incentive ratios. We find that a new active blockholder more likely emerges when a firm deviates from target; deviations fall during the period the blockholder owns shares; and deviations fall more when the blockholder appoints a director to the firm. When a firm is above (below) target, blockholders are associated with less (more) inside debt and more (no change in) inside equity, implying there is no “one-size-fits-all” compensation change for blockholders. Outside debt and equity increase for both above and below target firms.

Evaluating the Economic Incentives of Biomass Removal on Site Preparation for Different Harvesting Systems in Australia

Research Highlights: This study evaluated the impacts of biomass recovery on site preparation costs while proposing a mathematical model and framework to catalogue the benefits depending on harvesting system. Background and Objectives: Biomass as a viable product depends on the requisite costs of production compared to the price paid by relative markets. The removal of biomass directly impacts site preparation costs, and the operational and economic ramifications of this should inform the feasibility of biomass harvesting and market viability. The relative incentives for biomass removal depend on the quantity, presentation, and location of the residues and are thus a result of the commercial sawlog harvesting system. This incentive also largely depends on the required work to prepare a site for replanting. Materials and Methods: This study developed a mathematical model to connect the concepts of site preparation, harvesting, and biomass costs and revenues to determine the maximum net revenue. This work also developed a framework for understanding and calculating the key model inputs related to site preparation and the relative economic site preparation incentive for biomass harvesting. The framework was then illustrated by using industry data from plantations in Queensland, Australia. Results and Conclusions: The analysis identified a potential reduction in site preparation costs due to biomass harvesting of USD 75–450 ha−1, with a greater incentive when using cut-to-length harvesting systems compared with whole-tree harvesting due to the greater volume of residues after cut-to-length harvesting. For example, a removal of 20 t ha−1 of recoverable biomass after cut-to-length harvesting may equate to an economic incentive of USD 22 t−1. Depending on the biomass market, this incentive may represent a significant percentage (or even exceed) the biomass market price. The combination of biomass market price plus site preparation economic incentive may make biomass an attractive market opportunity, even in challenging biomarkets.

Dual eligible patients are not the same

Background:CMS recently decided to produce private “healthcare disparities reports” that include dual eligibility (DE) as the sole stratifying variable used to assess pneumonia readmission disparities.Research design:We measure the relationship between DE status and readmissions, both with and without conceptually relevant social risk factors, including air pollution, severe housing problems, and food insecurity, using data from county- and hospital-level readmission rates, DE status, and social risk factors.Results:At the county level, the relationship between DE status and readmissions is partially confounded by at least three social risk factors. DE populations vary widely across hospitals, creating unequal between-hospital comparisons.Conclusions:Because of differences in the DE population, between-hospital comparisons could be misleading using a methodology that stratifies by DE only. We suggest viable alternatives to sole-factor stratification to properly account for social risk factors and better isolate quality differences that might yield readmission rate inequities.Implications:CMS's healthcare disparities reports provided to hospitals are limited by relying exclusively on DE proportion as the measure of social risk, undercutting the power of quality measurement and its related incentives to close or minimize healthcare inequities.

Competition under revenue-cap regulation with efficiency benchmarking: tariff related incentives for gas transmission system operators in merged markets

In Europe, gas market mergers aim at reducing restrictions on gas wholesale markets. Market mergers also allow network users to book transport capacity at different gas transmission system operators (TSOs), which may give rise to inter-TSO competition. Our theoretical analysis reveals the incentive for TSOs, operating under a revenue-cap regulation in merged markets, to charge lower tariffs at borders where different TSOs offer capacity, compared to borders where only one TSO offers capacity. This incentive does not directly result from revenue-cap regulation but is due to efficiency benchmarking. We test this hypothesis by applying a panel data analysis to tariffs charged at German border points between 2015 and 2018. In line with our hypothesis, we find lower tariffs at those border points where network users have a choice between different TSOs. An additional sensitivity analysis differentiating between transit and meshed networks confirms this result. We conclude that German TSOs, operating in merged markets and under a revenue-cap regime with efficiency benchmarking, compete for demand at borders at which different TSOs offer capacity.

Improving Food Access through Farmers Market Incentives: Barriers, Strategies and Agency Perceptions from Market Managers

Florida’s Fresh Access Bucks program provides incentives to Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program beneficiaries to redeem fresh, locally grown fruits and vegetables at select farmers markets. Policy-makers and practitioners designed the program to improve access to fresh fruits and vegetables for limited-resource families while stimulating the local economy by supporting purchases from local farmers. While evidence suggests that related incentive programs improve access to nutritious food, there is currently little research regarding farmers market managers’ perspectives and experiences regarding program adoption and use, despite the critical role played by managers in administering the program. Using data collected from semistructured phone interviews with market managers, we applied a component of the Integrated Behavioral Model to explore the barriers managers face in engaging with limited-resource consumers at their markets through the Fresh Access Bucks program. Additionally, we explored managers’ perceptions of their ability to administer and market the program effectively through strategic interventions. Results indicate that market managers’ perception of their ability to administer the program was hindered by the following external environmental factors: bureaucratic limitations; availability of locally eligible producers and growers; organizational structure and funding support; and transportation and physical access. The following strategic efforts influenced manager perceptions of their ability to administer the program: risk-taking and experimentation; loyalty, trust, and relationship-building with vendors; cultivating market experiences; and strategic coordination with partner organizations. These find­ings have implications for improving outcomes for similar nutrition incentive initiatives at farmers markets. See the press release for this article.