Mertins, V., & Walter, C. (2021). In Absence of Money: A Field Experiment on Volunteer Work Motivation. Experimental Economics, 24(3), 952-984. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10683-020-09686-4  

Although volunteers are a critical resource for non-profit organizations, little is known about how best to motivate them to work. A non-profit organization asked episodic volunteers to produce handmade greeting cards to sell at a fundraising event. By running a natural field experiment, we study the effect of motivating these volunteers through (a) the opportunity to vote on how the money that was raised would be spent and (b) the prospect of individual performance feedback. We find an economically and statistically significant positive effect of both tools on the quantity of work done, while the quality is mostly unaffected. Moreover, we observe significant gender differences in responsiveness to the treatments. While the prospect for feedback is more motivating to men, women respond more strongly to the opportunity to decide how the money would be spent. Empowerment seems to be a simple way to increase engagement for people with low enjoyment. 

Eisenkopf, G., & Walter, C. (2021). Leadership with Imperfect
Monitoring. The Leadership Quarterly, 101589 (in press). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.leaqua.2021.101589.

This paper provides experimental evidence on how monitoring intensity shapes the impact of leadership instruments like leading-by-example and punishment. The results show that, with low monitoring intensity, neither leading-by-example nor punishment increases cooperation if the leader can already send nonbinding signals about desired behavior. We identify two different reasons for this effect. Regarding leading-by-example, it is the cautiousness of the leader. Leaders are reluctant to recommend cooperative behavior and act accordingly, even though followers are particularly reciprocal in this context. Regarding punishment, it is the level of monitoring that matters. Monitoring of individual follower behavior increases the cooperation of leaders and followers across all treatments, but in particular, if the leader can punish uncooperative behavior. This result implies that monitoring in itself does not have a negative impact on the inclination to cooperate. It suggests that any motivational crowding out effect derives from a leader’s choice of monitoring, as it signals low trust in the followers. The paper concludes with a discussion of the implications. 

Better a Woman than a Skilled Man? Gender-Based Discrimination in the Childcare Market (with Bernd Josef Leisen and Vanessa Mertins) (upon request)

The proportion of male employees in the childcare sector remains low despite numerous recruitment campaigns by several European governments and employer associations. While previous studies examined reasons why men rarely select themselves into childcare professions, the present paper examines gender discrimination as a potential explanation for the scarcity of men. Conducting two field experiments, we send out fictional applications to study the behavior of parents seeking in-home childcare and of professional childcare centers seeking employees. Parents display a distinct preference for female applicants even when a male applicant holds superior qualifications. A content analysis of the job advertisements and rejection messages reveals the prevalence of gender-based stereotyping. For the center-based childcare market, we find discrimination against well-educated men. A high response rate attests to employers’ efforts to challenge the skill shortage in the center-based childcare market, reducing discriminatory practices.

Trust and Gender Discrimination in the Sharing Economy (with Bernd Josef Leisen and Vanessa Mertins) (upon request)

Driven by the facilitating role of peer-to-peer platforms and information systems, the sharing economy has risen in the last decades with an even greater predicted growth in the near future. While previous studies show ethnic discrimination on sharing platforms, this paper studies gender-based discrimination in the ride-sharing market. We conduct an experiment in which we manipulate the ride-share driver characteristics and test for several explanations of gender-based discrimination and potential pathways out of it. Our results suggest that female suppliers are substantially favored in comparison to their male counterparts since gender acts as a mediator for perceived trustworthiness. We show that the effect is mainly driven by female passengers. Male drivers can close the discrimination gap by providing positive signals. We find also evidence for experience based-learning as discrimination diminishes when female customers already rode with a male driver.

Prosocial Engagement of Refugees - A Discrimination Reducing Device in the Housing Market (with Vanessa Mertins and Bernd Josef Leisen)

Does it Matter if Prosocial Activities are Self-Chosen or Advised? Ways Out of Unemployment Discrimination in the Rental Housing Market (with Vanessa Mertins and Bernd Josef Leisen)