Negative Incentives Research Articles

Framing policies to mobilize citizens' behavior during a crisis: Examining the effects of positive and negative vaccination incentivizing policies

AbstractThe COVID‐19 pandemic has highlighted the issue of mobilization policies, that is, government practices directed at making the mass public voluntarily perform various behaviors for the collective benefit during a crisis. As COVID‐19 vaccinations became accessible, governments faced the challenge of mass vaccination mobilization in order to achieve herd immunization. Aiming to effectively realize this goal, policy designers and regulators worldwide considered various mobilizing tools for vaccination compliance, including rewards and penalties, as they targeted vaccine opposers and hesitators, while trying to avoid the crowding‐out effect among individuals who were intrinsically motivated to get vaccinated. However, the unique circumstances of the Coronavirus pandemic may have eliminated the crowding‐out effect. Thus, our study explored the effect of regulation in the form of positive and negative incentivizing tools (i.e., rewards and penalties) during the coronavirus pandemic on vaccination intentions of 1184 Israeli citizens, prior to the national vaccination campaign. Results indicate that (1) both negative and positive incentives have a similar positive effect on individuals who declare they will not get vaccinated and those who hesitate to get the shot; (2) both positive and negative incentives induce the crowding‐out effect; and (3) negative incentives generate a larger crowding‐out effect in individuals who report preliminary intentions to get vaccinated, compared to positive ones. This emphasizes the need to avoid the crowding‐out effect during the current and similar crises, and suggests considering applying a gradual and adaptive policy design in order to maximize regulatory efficacy and compliance.

Modeling the Effect of Congestion Charge and Parking Pricing on Urban Traffic: Example of Jerusalem

Abstract. Transportation Network Companies (TNC), like Uber, Lyft, and VIA, started their activities a decade ago with a far-reaching hope that Mobility-On-Demand (MOD) transportation services would decelerate or even stop the ever-growing congestion. However, it didn't happen; the negative incentives, like congestion charges and higher parking prices, seem to be the only policy tools for influencing congestion and associated negative externalities like pollution and noise. The question is whether we can establish socially acceptable congestion charges and parking prices that will effectively reduce the arrivals and traffic in highly congested areas and become the background for the future MOD arrangement? We employ the MATSim agent-based simulation model (Horni et al., 2016) of multi-modal traffic in Jerusalem Metropolitan Area (JMA) to address this problem. We investigate whether the combination of congestion and parking prices can force drivers to use Public Transport (PT), thus reducing arrivals with the private cars into the center of the city. The model study demonstrates that a reasonable charge of 7–12€ for entering the city center could decrease arrivals by 25%. From the transport policy point of view, the effects of congestion charges and parking prices are different – the increase in the congestion charges decreases arrivals. In contrast, the increase in parking prices decreases the dwell time. We discuss the policy consequences of employing each of the two mechanisms.

Children and the US Social Safety Net: Balancing Disincentives for Adults and Benefits for Children.

A hallmark of every developed nation is the provision of a social safety net-a collection of public programs that deliver aid to the poor. Because of their higher rates of poverty, children are often a major beneficiary of safety net programs. Countries vary considerably in both the amount of safety net aid to children and the design of their programs. The United States provides less aid to families with children as a share of GDP (0.6 percent) than most countries: Among 37 OECD countries, only Turkey provides less, as shown in Figure 1. Countries that provide less aid to families with children have higher rates of child poverty. Among these same 37 countries, only Turkey and Costa Rica have higher child poverty rates than the United States. Why does the United States appear to be such an outlier in terms of the amount of aid it provides to families and child poverty rates? While there are likely multiple reasons, in this paper we focus on one possible explanation: Past emphasis on the negative behavioral effects of safety net programs for families over the benefits of such programs for children.

Research on information dissemination of blockchain network community under the action of negative incentive mechanism

Traditional online communities suffer from false, repetitive or low-level content, with blockchain technology able to solve these problems. Specifically, the incentive mechanism is the blockchain’s core value, including positive and negative incentive mechanisms. The former strengthens people’s behaviour positively, while the latter, on the contrary, adopts mandatory methods such as punishment to eliminate the occurrence of certain types of behaviour. The negative incentive mechanism is the key factor to solve the problems presented above that traditional online communities face. Specifically, this article develops a solution that utilises the negative incentive mechanism, based on the classic infectious disease model (SIR model), introduces smart nodes, puts forward the SSIR model of information dissemination in the blockchain network community, and establishes a set of differential equations reflecting the information dissemination rules. Based on the parameter assumption and solving the equations with MATLAB, this article compares and reveals the changes of different user types on the SIR and SSIR models. Furthermore, we utilise the data collected from the Steemit blockchain community and Sina Weibo platform and apply the Social Network Analysis method to compare and analyse the information dissemination between the blockchain and the traditional network community. The research results highlight that the negative incentive mechanism in the blockchain network community affords a more rational behaviour of user information dissemination, a simpler interaction between users, and reducing to a certain extent the dissemination of ‘distorted’ or ‘uncertain’ information.

Implementation strategy and emission reduction effectiveness of carbon cap-and-trade in heterogeneous enterprises

In this research, a carbon emission reduction supply chain mechanism formed by government and enterprises is developed. Using a mixed game model, we study the impact of enterprise heterogeneity and social willingness-to-pay for environmental measures on the implementation strategy and effectiveness of cap-and-trade mechanism. The choice and effectiveness of the strategies are cross-influenced by the aforementioned two factors. The former has thresholds, which serve as a basic guarantee and adjustment; the latter is a key factor affecting government and enterprise decision-making and the fairness of the sharing of emission reduction responsibilities. The quotas allocation in compliance with the rule mainly affects the allocation of industry profits and consumers’ active payment among enterprises, and is an effective tool for achieving two-way incentives. The difference between quotas and the voluntary reduction of emissions is the main reason for the surplus or shortage of quotas. We propose an emission reduction integration mechanism, which is based on the social willingness-to-pay for environmental measures, the difference of carbon emissions per unit and the quota allocation schemes, can avoid negative incentives and lack of fairness. The emission reduction mechanism can only reduce the loss of social welfare, but the government can launch appropriate emission reduction practices based on the conception of carbon neutrality to improve social welfare.

G.L. v. Italy: The ambiguous role of article 14 European court of human rights in inclusive education cases

In September 2020, the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) in the case of G.L. v. Italy found the Italian authorities in violation of their Convention obligations towards a child with disabilities. More specifically, as they had taken insufficient action to secure the implementation of support to which the learner had a legal right, Italy had violated its obligations under Article 2 of the First Protocol to the European Convention on Human Rights (‘FP’, right to education) combined with Article 14 European Convention on Human Rights (‘ECHR’, prohibition of discrimination) (para. 70). The judgment appears to be a cause for joy amongst those advocating for inclusive education. Yet the ECtHR’s current reasoning might not only herald positive developments in this area. In line with some previous cases, the Court uses Article 14 as a stepping stone for the state obligation to provide inclusive education. In considering reasonable accommodations through the lens of inclusive education, the Court conflates the two analyses. These entangled analyses under Article 14, as applied in G.L. and in the prior judgement of Stoian, could create negative incentives for states to draft legal provisions concerning inclusive education and take the necessary steps for implementation there.

Information defaults in repeated public good provision

We study an unexplored type of defaults - information defaults - in a repeated public good provision setting. In our treatments, we vary the default of having or not having contribution information as well as whether the information comes with a positive, zero or negative financial incentive. We find that almost all subjects have the information when this is cost-free or financially beneficial, but around a third have the information even when this is costly. Moreover, a default of not having information leads to a slower unraveling of cooperation which is matched by the beliefs about others’ contributions in these treatments. We also find a secondary informational default effect, challenging previous findings on how defaults work: when the default is no information, subjects do not seek information more often, but they tend to believe that more other subjects seek information.

Unabsorbed Slack Resources and Enterprise Innovation: The Moderating Effect of Environmental Uncertainty and Managerial Ability

Unabsorbed slack resources are critical for organizational innovation, but research concerning the relationship between unabsorbed slack and corporate innovation has resulted in controversial findings. Using the data of all A-shared listed companies in China from 2011 to 2018, this paper examines the influence of unabsorbed slack resources on enterprise innovation. First, the paper verifies that there is an inverted U-shaped relationship between unabsorbed slack resources and R&D investment and innovation output. Following that, empirical findings show that environmental uncertainty and managerial ability have a negative incentive effect on the relationship between unabsorbed slack resources and enterprise innovation. Finally, the results of mechanism testing reveal that unabsorbed slack resources affect the enterprise innovation through two channels: resource effect and agency cost.

Reduction of CO2 emissions: The role of renewable energy, technological innovation and export quality

In the 22 well-developed countries of the world, the level of CO2 emissions has been reducing over the years despite positive economic growth. This study therefore attempts to explore the role of contributory factors for CO2 emissions reduction in these countries. Selecting the data period of 1990–2018, our chosen independent variables are gross domestic product (GDP), square of the gross domestic product (GDP2), renewable energy, technological innovation and export quality. Adopting a panel non-linear autoregressive distributed lag (NARDL) approach, a pooled mean group (PMG) estimation technique is used to explore the asymmetric linkages between CO2 emissions and these independent variables. The panel heterogeneous causality test is used to examine the direction of causality. The estimated results have confirmed the existence of environmental Kuznets curve (EKC) hypothesis; and renewable energy and export quality are found as contributory factors for the reduction of CO2 emissions. Positive stimuli of technological innovation measured by research and development expenditure and export quality index reduce, whereas the negative shocks or counter incentives of these variables increase CO2 emissions. In regards to causal relationship, bidirectional causality is found between renewable energy and CO2 emissions, technological innovation and CO2 emissions, GDP and renewable energy, and renewable energy and technological innovation. In addition, a unidirectional causality is also revealed from GDP to CO2 emissions, export quality and technological innovation, and from technological innovation to export quality. Policy recommendations are made following the findings.

Fear memory modulation by incentive down and up-shifts

Research on retrieval-induced malleability of maladaptive emotional memories has been mostly focused on the effect of drugs and extinction (i.e. post-retrieval extinction). Only a few studies addressed post-retrieval appetitive-aversive interactions. Due to the relevance that the understanding of the interactions between memory content and appetitive or aversive states under retrieval circumstances has for translational research, here we explored the relation between fear (i.e. contextual fear conditioning) and sucrose concentration down (32–4%) or up-shifts (4–32%). These have been reported as methods to induce aversive or appetitive internal states, respectively. We observed that fear expression is differentially susceptible to incentive contrast manipulations depending on the memory stage: acquisition, mere retrieval or retrieval-induced memory malleability. After fear acquisition, freezing behavior and incentive shift direction followed an inverse relation, that is: up-shift decreased fear responding and down-shift increased it. However, freezing behavior remained unaltered when incentive contrast was absent, regardless of the sucrose concentration employed (4–4% and 32–32%). When incentive shifts occurred after mere-retrieval, both negative and positive incentive shifts resulted in increased freezing behavior. Strikingly, this effect was unrelated to the nature of the incentive contrast (either positive or negative), occurring only when animals had no previous experience with the shifted solution. On the other hand, when fear retrieval led to memory malleability, up-shifts in sucrose concentration dampened freezing behavior as much as unshifted controls, whilst down-shift left freezing unaltered. Freezing facilitation was finally achieved after retrieval-induced memory malleability only after prior sampling of the down-shifted solution (i.e. 4% SUC). These results reveal a complex pattern of interactions between memory retrieval and incentive shift-induced internal states.

НЕДИСЦИПЛИНИРОВАННЫЕ МУНИЦИПАЛИТЕТЫ: СБОИ ЦЕНТРАЛИЗАЦИИ И ЛОКАЛЬНАЯ АВТОНОМИЯ В РОССИИ В 2010-Е ГГ.

The local political autonomy in Russia is extremely low. Along with the municipalities having a narrow range of powers and financial capabilities higher-level authorities control local heads. The opportunities of regional authorities to appoint and dismiss heads of municipalities, as well as strengthening of the party of power on the local level, aim at control over electoral results and policy implementation. However, existing tools of political centralization at the local level often fail. In the article, we show two scenarios of regaining autonomy by the local elites. The first one is typical for the appointed mayors, who shirk regional policies because regions cannot effectively control them by positive or negative incentives. The second scenario is typical for elected mayors, who have a political power to provide necessary electoral outcomes and bargain electoral loyalty for the benefits of their municipalities being more responsive to voters’ demands. Moreover, even weak local institutions do not only help regional authorities to consolidate local elites but also provide opportunities for local elites to struggle more effectively for their aims. The research is based on interviews with local officials, deputies and experts conducted in Sverdlovsk and Irkutsk regions in summer of 2022 as well as on media materials.

ПОЛИТИКА ОПЛАТЫ ТРУДА ГОРОЖАН РСФСР В 1946–1953 гг.: МОБИЛИЗАЦИОННЫЙ ИНСТРУМЕНТ И ФАКТОР МАТЕРИАЛЬНОГО НЕРАВЕНСТВА

The paper analyzes the policy of remuneration of various professional groups of the urban society of the RSFSR in 1946–1953 to determine the specifics and extent of wage differentiation, its conditionality with the tasks of the mobilization strategy of the state. The policy of remuneration of urban dwellers was characterized by a high level of differentiation. In accordance with the main link principle, in urban society “priority” groups were identified, in relation to which positive material incentives (salary increases, payments, etc.) were more actively applied. In relation to the rest of the townspeople, methods of negative financial incentives were more widely used (increasing production rates, reducing piece rates). Differentiated wage policy was a tool for solving state tasks: securing personnel in priority industries, increasing labor productivity, stimulating scientific research, etc. On the other hand, it contributed to the material polarization of Soviet society. In assessing the scale of material inequality, the system of estimating coordinates plays a decisive role. Contemporaries noted a significant level of material stratification of Soviet society, interpreting it as a violation of the principle of socialist distribution. According to T. Piketty, F. Novokmet and G. Zucman, the coefficient of material inequality in the post-war USSR was quite low (in comparison with the pre-revolutionary, post-Soviet, foreign levels), but on the scale of the Soviet period, this indicator reached its maximum precisely in the post-war years.

Social Justice as an Incentive and a Brake on Economic Development: The Contradictions of the USSR as Challenges for the Future

The article examines the experience of the USSR in the field of solving the problem of correlation between social justice and economic efficiency. The characteristics of those aspects of Soviet experience in the sphere of implementation of social justice principles in the sphere of labor and distribution, which have potential for application in the conditions of modern capitalism to respond to the current challenges, are outlined. Firstly, it is noted that social justice is not reduced to inequality of income and distribution of wealth but is considered in connection with the human factor of economic development. In an expanded understanding, social justice includes a measure of access to basic resources such as labour, housing, education, health and other areas of human development. The experience of the USSR is characterised by the fact that, on the one hand, the universal availability and security of these basic resources (public goods) created the grounds for stimulating human development. On the other hand, the violation of these declared principles in practice (due to the development of bureaucratic privileges and benefits, the shadow economy, etc.) caused serious negative incentives, which became one of the elements in the system of reasons for the departure of “real socialism” from the historical scene. Secondly, the article points out that the Soviet system of income generation based on the principles of labour distribution was a combination of planned-normative and market-capitalist principles designed to create economic “egoistic” incentives. To the extent that this system was implemented, it succeeded in stimulating productivity and labour (but not market) initiative. But the manifestation, and in later stages of the USSR's development – in some cases the predominance, of bureaucratic-voluntarist foundations in the system created rather negative incentives. Relations of alienation in the sphere of appropriation and disposal of public property undermined socialist incentives to work and social innovation. The author concludes that some of the achievements of the Soviet system in the realisation of social justice are possible and effective in meeting the challenge of sustainable development in the 21st century. In particular, practices that were developed in the Soviet system, such as the provision of basic goods that are publicly available and free to users, the use of forms of work organisation based on a combination of competition, solidarity and self-government, etc., remain important.

Dissociable influences of reward and punishment on adaptive cognitive control.

To invest effort into any cognitive task, people must be sufficiently motivated. Whereas prior research has focused primarily on how the cognitive control required to complete these tasks is motivated by the potential rewards for success, it is also known that control investment can be equally motivated by the potential negative consequence for failure. Previous theoretical and experimental work has yet to examine how positive and negative incentives differentially influence the manner and intensity with which people allocate control. Here, we develop and test a normative model of control allocation under conditions of varying positive and negative performance incentives. Our model predicts, and our empirical findings confirm, that rewards for success and punishment for failure should differentially influence adjustments to the evidence accumulation rate versus response threshold, respectively. This dissociation further enabled us to infer how motivated a given person was by the consequences of success versus failure.

Exploring incentive mechanism in smart e-waste management system in China

With the vast increase in global e-waste, e-waste management is becoming increasingly critical. China produces a large amount of e-waste every year, but the recycling rate is minimal. To avoid causing severe environmental pollution and affecting human health, the Chinese government has focused on recycling e-wastes. E-waste contains precious metals and critical minerals, which are misplaced resources and have recycling value. We combined the incentive system with the smart e-waste collecting system and constructed a set of incentive measures suitable for China’s smart e-waste collection system, which is conducive to enhancing the e-waste recovery rate and is applicable. The existing smart e-waste collection system adopts a single economic incentive method. It faces fierce competition from unauthorized informal recyclers, resulting in a small number of users and a failure to fully utilize its advantages. In the reverse logistics of e-waste recycling, consumers are the starting point of product recycling. By analyzing the characteristics and determinants of Chinese users’ recycling behavior, this study selected appropriate incentives for a smart e-waste collection system to satisfy Chinese consumers’ perceptions of end-of-life electrical and electronic equipment. The incentive system is based on economic incentives, including currency, reward points, and tax incentives, and combines negative incentives, mainly fines. Rewards and punishments are employed simultaneously to achieve long-term and sustainable incentive effects. The incentive system is based on the convenient infrastructure of the smart e-waste collection system, and its financial model must be shared by multiple stakeholders from the government, smart e-waste systems, and manufacturers.

Wages, Work, and the Catholic Social Teaching

The Catholic Social Teaching is a rich and relevant source for studying contemporary problems in society. In this paper, I investigate the question about equal pay in light of the social teaching. During the last decade, there has been an increasing interest in equal pay and related concepts like universal basic income. By equal pay we mean that everyone in society receives the same remuneration regardless of the type of work, level of effort, or unemployed or not. From an economic point of view, there are large negative incentive effects with such an arrangement. The reason is that the principle of ‘equal pay for all’ breaks the relationship between the workers’ effort and the payment associated with the effort. Furthermore, neo-classical economics would argue that there is no incentive to work if there is no financial payoff compared to not working. Also from a Catholic social teaching viewpoint, there is no support for an ‘equal pay for all’ arrangement. However, the social teaching sheds important light on the meaning of work and the right to a living wage.

Population Growth and Economic Development: Theoretical Arguments and Empirical Findings— A Survey of Literature

The relationship between population growth and economic development has remained a controversial topic since the time of Malthus. Opinion among the scholars on this issue is sharply divided. This article examines the theoretical arguments about the likely consequences—positive or negative—of higher population growth on economic development and looks at the empirical findings on the issue based on the survey of literature in the field. The article traces the historical profile of demographic change in the developed and the developing countries over the last two centuries and analyses the factors behind them with particular reference to China and India. The implications of the findings for population control policy are also examined. There is a growing realisation of the fact that fertility decline is dependent upon socio-economic development. There is a general consensus among demographers that policies for fertility reduction should stress voluntary decisions on the part of the individuals concerned rather than compulsion and should be conceived in the context of a much wider programme for social, economic, and political development. The positive and negative incentives in this situation have a limited role to play in this context.

SARS-C0V-2 vaccination in the context of employment: the legal framework in Hungary

BackgroundDeployment of SARS-CoV-2 vaccines has sparked the debate on action that employers can lawfully take to promote vaccination uptake among employees. Absenteeism reduction, liability concerns, occupational health and safety, protecting the health and safety of clients and service recipients might prompt such action. This raises questions about employees' freedom of choice and right to (refuse) consent. The research examined the related policy and regulatory framework in Hungary.MethodsLegal and policy analysis was conducted on Hungary's immunization policy as well as its legal and regulatory framework for SARS-CoV-2 vaccines deployment. The focus was on health law and labour law to explore whether and how SARS-CoV-2 vaccination could be turned into a workplace safety requirement.ResultsIn Hungary, SARS-CoV-2 vaccination is currently voluntary. However, the Hungarian Healthcare Act and Labour Code allow for making it mandatory by ministerial decree prescribing a vaccination obligation as an employment condition for certain jobs. The National Public Health Center determines on a yearly basis the list of jobs concerned. Individuals may only be exempted if their (current or foreseeable) underlying health conditions so require. Further to the Labour Code, if employers use negative incentives (e.g., sanctions) and positive incentives (e.g., bonuses) to enforce vaccination, they must satisfy the conditions of necessity, proportionality and non-discrimination.ConclusionsAlthough SARS-CoV-2 vaccination is currently voluntary in Hungary, the legal framework for mandatory vaccination at work is put in place. When it comes to enforcing the vaccination obligation, sanctions imposed by employers and related application of the necessity and proportionality standards have not yet been tested in Hungarian courts.Key messages Regulation shall ensure protection of employees’ rights as part of SARS-CoV-2 vaccination policies.Measures promoting vaccination must respect the legal requirements of proportionality, necessity and non-discrimination.

Enforcement On Land Tax Arrears in Malaysia: A Framework Based on National Land Code 1965

Tax enforcement is needed in the forms of negative incentives such as sanctions, penalties and property forfeiture to deter non-compliance on the property tax payment conduct by the taxpayers. To implement such legal actions and proceedings effectively, it is crucial for tax authority to have a set of complete process flow of the enforcement as part of the enforcement framework to ensure the law is enforced with utmost fair manner. Thus, this article aims to establish a comprehensive enforcement workflow of land tax arrears in Malaysia based on the legislations provided in the National Land Code 1965. This is done by carrying out a content analysis of the legislation in force in National Land Codes 1965, which regulates the enforcement actions by the Land Administrators and State Authorities on the land tax arrears. The authors have performed the validation of the workflow by conducting semi structured interviews with land matter experts from at the federal level and Land Administrator (state level). This article will fill the gap in discussions on complete process flow of enforcement against land tax arrears outlined by National Land Code 1965.

Negative Incentives for Noninstitutional Births Are Associated With a Higher Rate of Facility-Based Births in the Eastern Visaya Region, Philippines.

In the Philippines, the "no home-birthing policy" implemented in 2008 has encouraged local governments to endorse ordinances that prohibit noninstitutional deliveries (NIDs). The Philippines' social insurance scheme has also enabled them to provide incentive payments to women who deliver at birthing facilities (BFs). This study evaluated whether these positive and/or negative incentives were associated with an increased facility-based delivery (FBD) rate and examined challenges in implementing those incentive measures in the Eastern Visaya Region of the Philippines. Cross-sectional data were collected regarding delivery locations during 2017, and barangay-level data were collected regarding positive and negative incentives and the characteristics of 4,371 barangays in the region. Multivariate logistic regression analysis, using "ordinance with nonmonetary sanction" as the reference category, indicated that no ordinance to prohibit NIDs was significantly associated with a lower FBD rate (odds ratio [OR]: 0.90, P=.013), and ordinance with low cash penalty (OR: 1.37, P<.001) and high cash penalty (OR: 2.52, P<.001) had higher FBD rates. Positive incentives were not associated with FBD rates (OR: 1.02, P=.563). The FBD rate was also significantly associated with urban barangay status (OR: 1.45, P<.001), availability of a vehicle (OR: 3.19, P<.001), availability of public transportation to a government BF (OR: 1.25, P<.001), and distance to the most accessible government BF (OR: 0.89, P<.001). Substantial proportions of barangays had no vehicles available for transportation (34.1%) or no available vehicles and no public transportation to a government BF (5.5%). Although negative incentives for NIDs could motivate pregnant women to seek FBD, local governments in the Philippines should be aware of barriers that limit access to government BFs in underserved barangays before introducing those negative incentives. Above all, barangay-level investments in making a vehicle for transporting pregnant women might help address these barriers and increase the FBD rate.