The Monotonicity Puzzle: An Experimental Investigation of Incentive Structures

Non-monotone incentive structures, which - according to theory - are able to induce optimal behavior, are often regarded as empirically less relevant for labor relationships. We compare the performance of a theoretically optimal non-monotone contract with a monotone one under controlled laboratory conditions. Implementing some features relevant to real-world employment relationships, our paper demonstrates that, in fact, the frequency of income-maximizing decisions made by agents is higher under the monotone contract. Although this observed behavior does not change the superiority of the non-monotone contract for principals, they do not choose this contract type in a significant way. This is what we call the monotonicity puzzle. Detailed investigations of decisions provide a clue for solving the puzzle and a possible explanation for the popularity of monotone contracts.

“Advertising Psychology – The Blog Seminar”.

The aim of the web-based course “Advertising Psychology – The Blog Seminar” was to offer a contemporary teaching design using typical Web 2.0 characteristics such as comments, discussions and social media integration which covers facebook and Twitter support, as nowadays, this is a common part of students’ everyday life. This weblog (blog)-based seminar for Advertising Psychology was set up in order to make the course accessible to students from different campuses in the Ruhr metropolitan area. The technical aspect of the open-source content management system Drupal 6.0 and the didactical course structure, based on Merrill’s five first principles of instruction, are introduced. To date, this blog seminar has been conducted three times with a total of 84 participants, who were asked to rate the course according to the benefits of different didactical elements and with regard to Kirkpatrick’s levels of evaluation model. This model covers a) reactions such as reported enjoyment, perceived usefulness and perceived difficulty, and b) effects on learning through the subjectively reported increase in knowledge and attitude towards the seminar. Overall, the blog seminar was evaluated very positively and can be considered as providing support for achieving the learning objectives. However, a successful blended learning approach should always be tailored to the learning contents and the environment.