Authors

• Brice Corgnet (bcorgnet@unav.es)
  Facultad de Ciencias Económicas y Empresariales, Universidad de Navarra

Abstract
We use peer assessments as a tool to allocate joint profits in a real effort team experiment. We find that using this incentive mechanism reduces team performance. More specifically, we show that teams composed of fellows rather than strangers actually underperform in a context of peer evaluations. We conjecture that peer evaluations undermine the inherently high level of intrinsic motivation that characterizes teams composed of friends. We finally analyze the determinants of peer assessments and stress the crucial importance of equality concerns.

Classification JEL:C92, M12, M54

Keywords:team incentives, peer evaluations, experiments

Number of Pages:43

Creation Date:2009-11-02

Number:null/09