5 Conclusion
This paper presents a natural field experiment to test ex-post effects of recognition. We
contribute to the literature by studying the effect of recognition in a work setting and by looking
at ex-post effects of rewards. We find that materially worthless rewards have a statistically
significant impact on performance. Specifically, non-recipients increase their subsequent
performance in response to scarce rewards. In line with conformity models that predict that
subjects adjust their performance to correspond to average performance, this effect is larger
when there is a relatively large number of recipients. We conclude that it is important to take
ex-post effects of rewards into account and that channels like conformity produce unexpected
effects that should be investigated further. Limitations of this study are the student sample, the
short-term employment (no established relationship between employer and employees) and the
short duration of the work. Future work should address these issues.
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