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Killer Incentives: Status Competition and Pilot Performance during World War II

Author

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  • Voth, Hans-Joachim
  • Ager, Philipp
  • Bursztyn, Leonardo
Abstract
Using newly-collected data on death rates and aerial victories of more than 5,000 German fighter pilots during World War II, we examine the effects of public recognition on performance and risk-taking. When a particular pilot is honored publicly, both the victory rate and the death rate of his former peers increase. Fellow pilots react more if they come from the same region of Germany, or if they worked closely with him. Our results suggest that personal rivalry can be a prime motivating force, and that non-financial rewards can lead to a crowd-in of both effort and risk-taking via social connections.

Suggested Citation

  • Voth, Hans-Joachim & Ager, Philipp & Bursztyn, Leonardo, 2017. "Killer Incentives: Status Competition and Pilot Performance during World War II," CEPR Discussion Papers 11751, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
  • Handle: RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:11751
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    Cited by:

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    2. Berlinski, Samuel & Ramos, Alejandra, 2020. "Peer effects in the decision to apply for a professional excellence award," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 67(C).
    3. Benjamin Sahel & Antonio Scalia & Luana Zaccaria, 2021. "Career concerns and peer effects in institutional tournaments: Evidence from ECB reserve currency portfolios," Financial Management, Financial Management Association International, vol. 50(1), pages 47-73, March.
    4. Gwen-Jiro Clochard & Guillaume Hollard & Julia Wirtz, 2022. "More effort or better technologies? On the effect of relative performance feedback," Bristol Economics Discussion Papers 22/767, School of Economics, University of Bristol, UK.
    5. Marie Claire Villeval, 2020. "Performance Feedback and Peer Effects," Working Papers 2009, Groupe d'Analyse et de Théorie Economique Lyon St-Étienne (GATE Lyon St-Étienne), Université de Lyon.
    6. Roulleau-Pasdeloup, Jordan, 2020. "A Puncher’s chance: Expected gain and risk taking in a market for superstars," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 66(C).
    7. Yu Wu & Yingyi Hu, 2021. "Chinese-style incentives: The intraindustry ripple effects of CEO awards," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 16(6), pages 1-18, June.
    8. Leonardo Bursztyn & Robert Jensen, 2017. "Social Image and Economic Behavior in the Field: Identifying, Understanding, and Shaping Social Pressure," Annual Review of Economics, Annual Reviews, vol. 9(1), pages 131-153, September.
    9. Linus Siming, 2017. "Government awards as economic instruments of governance," Post-Print hal-01625711, HAL.
    10. Pastoriza, David & Alegre, Inés & Canela, Miguel A., 2021. "Conditioning the effect of prize on tournament self-selection," Journal of Economic Psychology, Elsevier, vol. 86(C).
    11. Li, Teng & Lu, Runjing, 2022. "Social undermining as a dark side of symbolic awards: Evidence from a regression discontinuity design," Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, Elsevier, vol. 173(C).
    12. Villeval, Marie Claire, 2020. "Performance Feedback and Peer Effects," GLO Discussion Paper Series 482, Global Labor Organization (GLO).
    13. Kiessling, Lukas & Radbruch, Jonas & Schaube, Sebastian, 2018. "The Impact of Self-Selection on Performance," IZA Discussion Papers 11365, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    14. Voth, Hans-Joachim & Caprettini, Bruno, 2018. "From Welfare to Warfare: New Deal Spending and Patriotism During World War II," CEPR Discussion Papers 12807, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    15. Voth, Hans-Joachim & Xu, Guo, 2020. "Encouraging Others: Punishment and Performance in the Royal Navy," CEPR Discussion Papers 14476, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    16. Lorenz Götte & Egon Tripodi, 2022. "Social Recognition: Experimental Evidence from Blood Donors," CESifo Working Paper Series 9719, CESifo.
    17. Marie Claire Villeval, 2020. "Performance Feedback and Peer Effects," Working Papers halshs-02488913, HAL.
    18. Raja Kali & David Pastoriza & Jean‐François Plante, 2018. "The burden of glory: Competing for nonmonetary incentives in rank‐order tournaments," Journal of Economics & Management Strategy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 27(1), pages 102-118, March.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Status competition; Nonfinancial incentives; Employee motivation; Behavioral economics; World war ii;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • N44 - Economic History - - Government, War, Law, International Relations, and Regulation - - - Europe: 1913-
    • J24 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Human Capital; Skills; Occupational Choice; Labor Productivity
    • J32 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Wages, Compensation, and Labor Costs - - - Nonwage Labor Costs and Benefits; Retirement Plans; Private Pensions
    • M52 - Business Administration and Business Economics; Marketing; Accounting; Personnel Economics - - Personnel Economics - - - Compensation and Compensation Methods and Their Effects

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