Can economics be passionate? Can it center on people and what really matters to them day-in and day-out. And help us understand their hidden motives for why they do what they do in everyday life? Uri Gneezy and John List are revolutionaries. Their ideas and methods for revealing what really works in addressing big social, business, and economic problems gives us new understanding of the motives underlying human behavior. We can then structure incentives that can get people to move mountains, change their behavior -- or at least get a better deal. But finding the right incentive can be like looking for a needle in a haystack. Gneezy and List's pioneering approach is to embed themselves in the factories, schools, communities, and offices where people work, live, and play. Then, through large-scale field experiments conducted "in the wild," Gneezy and List observe people in their natural environments without them being aware that they are observed. Their randomized experiments have revealed ways to close the gap between rich and poor students; to stop the violence plaguing inner-city schools; to decipher whether women are really less competitive than men; to correctly price products and services; and to discover the real reasons why people discriminate. To get the answers, Gneezy and List boarded planes, helicopters, trains, and automobiles to embark on journeys from the foothills of Kilimanjaro to California wineries; from sultry northern India to the chilly streets of Chicago; from the playgrounds of schools in Israel to the boardrooms of some of the world's largest corporations. In The Why Axis, they take us along for the ride, and through engaging and colorful stories, present lessons with big payoffs. Their revelatory, startling, and urgent discoveries about how incentives really work are both revolutionary and immensely practical. This research will change both the way we think about and take action on big and little problems. Instead of relying on assumptions, we can find out, through evidence, what really works. Anyone working in business, politics, education, or philanthropy can use the approach Gneezy and List describe in The Why Axis to reach a deeper, nuanced understanding of human behavior, and a better understanding of what motivates people and why.

This is a reproduction of a book published before 1923. This book may have occasional imperfections such as missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. that were either part of the original artifact, or were introduced by the scanning process. We believe this work is culturally important, and despite the imperfections, have elected to bring it back into print as part of our continuing commitment to the preservation of printed works worldwide. We appreciate your understanding of the imperfections in the preservation process, and hope you enjoy this valuable book. ++++ The below data was compiled from various identification fields in the bibliographic record of this title. This data is provided as an additional tool in helping to ensure edition identification: ++++ Economic Motives: A Study In The Psychological Foundations Of Economic Theory, With Some Reference To Other Social Sciences, Volume 26; Volume 24 Of Harvard Economic Studies Zenas Clark Dickinson Harvard University Press, 1922 Economics; Psychology

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Excerpt from Economic Motives: A Study in the Psychological Foundations of Economic Theory, With Some Reference to Other Social Sciences The following essay grew out of a doctoral thesis presented at Harvard University in 1919, and it was submitted in the Wells Prize competition in 1920. It seems impossible to find a title that accurately and briefly covers the field of the inquiry. This field may be called the psychological problems and postulates of economics, which are most conspicuous, of course, in the matter relating to Wants, Self-Interest, Value, Interest and Wages. These psychological questions are concerned, I believe, not only with seeking the chains of causation which make economic behavior what it is, and what it might be, but also with examining the effects of such activities on human welfare. In other words, it appears that there are psychological problems involved in the fullest investigation of Production and Economic Welfare, as well as of Value and Distribution. The main purpose of this essay is to gather up whatever material is to be found in psychological science that offers help in dealing with the above problems, and to present this material briefly in a manner intelligible to the economist or other social scientist. A considerable background of psychological fundamentals is given (in Part II), the relevancy of which may not be apparent, for the reason that the psychological vocabularies now current in social science discussions are too confused to admit of clear statements unless one's own presuppositions are made quite explicit. The relevancy of the historical chapters (in Part I) to my main purpose may also be questioned, and perhaps they are over lengthy. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.

This text poses a challenge to traditional economic theory, arguing that people do not act in expectation of monetary gain alone, nor do they work solely to get paid. It aims to show that higher monetary compensation crowds-out motivation, and offering higher pay makes people less committed to their work, and may reduce their performance.