Incentives in the Public Sector: Evidence from a Government Agency

This paper addresses a lack of evidence on the impact of performance pay in the public sector by evaluating a pilot scheme of incentives in a major government agency. The incentive scheme was based on teams and covered quantity and quality targets, measured with varying degrees of precision. We use data from the agency’s performance management system and personnel records plus matched labour market data. We focus on three main issues: whether performance pay matters for public service worker productivity, what the team basis of the scheme implies, and the impact of the differential measurement precision. We show that the use of performance pay had no impact at the mean, but that there was significant heterogeneity of response. This heterogeneity was patterned as one would expect from a free rider versus peer monitoring perspective. We found that the incentive had a substantial positive effect in small teams, and a negative response in large teams. We found little impact of the scheme on quality measures, which we interpret as due to the differential measurement technology. We show that the scheme in small teams had non-trivial effects on output, and our estimates suggest that the use of incentive pay is much more cost effective than a general pay rise.Incentives, Public Sector, Teams, Performance, Personnel Economics

Incentives in the Public Sector: Evidence from a Government Agency

This paper addresses a lack of evidence on the impact of performance pay in the public sector by evaluating a pilot scheme of incentives in a major government agency. The incentive scheme was based on teams and covered five different targets, measured with varying degrees of precision. We use data from the agency's performance management system and personnel records, plus matched labour market data. We focus on three main issues: whether performance pay matters for public service workers, what the team basis of the scheme implies, and the impact of the differential measurement precision. We show that the use of performance pay did have a significant effect on the main quality measure (job placements), but that there was significant heterogeneity of response. This heterogeneity was patterned as one would expect from a free rider versus per monitoring perspective. We found that the incentive had a substantial positive effect in small teams, and a negative response in large teams. We found little impact of the scheme on quality measures, and we interpret this as due to the differential measurement technology. We show that the scheme in small teams had non-trivial effects on output, and our estimates suggest that the use of incentive pay is much more cost effective than a general pay rise.incentives, public sector, teams, performance, personnel economics

Smarter Task Assignment or Greater Effort: the impact of incentives on team performance

We use an experiment to study the impact of team-based incentives, exploiting rich data from personnel records and management information systems. Using a triple difference design, we show that the incentive scheme had an impact on team performance, even with quite large teams. We examine whether this effect was due to increased effort from workers or strategic task reallocation. We find that the provision of financial incentives did raise individual performance but that managers also disproportionately reallocated efficient workers to the incentivised tasks. We show that this reallocation was the more important contributor to the overall outcome.Incentives, Public Sector, Teams, Performance

NSEA\u27s Future Leaders of Whatcom County (FLOW)

During the spring of 2022 I was a Future Leaders of Whatcom County (FLOW) intern with the Nooksack Salmon Enhancement Association (NSEA), a community-based nonprofit organization that educates, inspires, and engages the community to take action to keep wild salmon here for future generations. This paper will provide a background detailing my motivations and the events that lead me to this internship, a description of NSEA and the specific projects I completed, a discussion of my personal and professional development over the course of the spring, and a collection of my pictures from the season

Nooksack Salmon Enhancement Association (NSEA) FLOW Intern

Going into the internship, the intern team spent a day creating individual goals for the term. I hoped to learn more about the natural systems that support salmon populations, and specifically how ecosystems are benefited by the presence of a vibrant salmon population. I wanted to learn about our local watershed, the projects NSEA was currently working on to improve its health, and how I could best contribute to their mission during my internship term. Additionally, I wanted to gain confidence speaking about all of this information so that I could teach others about the importance of these systems. More than anything, I want to begin my journey as a steward to the land, and gain skills as a riparian restoration specialist to apply to my future professional work

Evaluation of Stress, Anxiety, and Relaxation Techniques in First Semester Pharmacy Students

The Accreditation Council for Pharmacy Education mandated measurement of perceived stress in Student Pharmacists as related to its impact on professional and academic performance. In 2015, Burgess et al. found a significant effect of power posing (P \u3c 0.01) as a physiological indicator of mental empowerment; testosterone decreased after female students conducted low power poses and increased following the high power poses. This study expanded upon the potential of using physical poses to impact mental status, by introducing Student Pharmacists to power posing and relaxation techniques to reduce levels of stress and anxiety over the course of a semester

My own personal hell: Approaching and exceeding thresholds of too much alcohol

Objectives: Government guidelines aim to promote sensible alcohol consumption but such advice is disconnected from people’s lived experiences. This research investigated how people construct personal thresholds of ‘too much’ alcohol. Design and measures: 150 drinkers completed an online survey (Mage=23.29(5.51); 64.7þmale). Participants were asked whether they had an intuitive sense of what constitutes too much alcohol. They wrote open-ended descriptions of how that threshold had been established and how it felt to approach/exceed it. These qualitative accounts were coded using thematic analysis and interpreted with an experiential theoretical framework. Results: Personal thresholds were based on previously experienced embodied states rather than guidelines, or health concerns. Describing the approach to their threshold, 75% of participants fell into two distinct groups. Group 1’s approach was an entirely negative (nausea/anxiety) and Group 2’s approach was an entirely positive, embodied experience (relaxed/pleasurable). These groups differed significantly in awareness of alcohol’s effects, agency and self-perceptions, but not on alcohol consumption. Exceeding their threshold was an entirely negative embodied experience for all. Conclusion: These findings illustrate that people are guided by experientially grounded conceptions of consumption. Interventions could target different groups of drinker according to their embodied experience during the approach to ‘too much’ alcohol

The Effects of Relaxation Techniques on Salivary Measures in Student Pharmacists

In 2011, the Accreditation Council for Pharmacy Education1 mandated measurement of stress in Student Pharmacists, specifically potential negative impacts on learning experiences and morale. Votta and Benau (2013)2 provided supporting evidence that pharmacy students experience elevated, but not extreme, levels of perceived stress as compared to the general population. Leffler et al. (2016)3 imposed a relaxation or non-relaxation technique on student pharmacists - they found two relaxation techniques (Mindfulness and Body Scan Meditation) and one control (Power Posing) were rated as easiest to conduct, most liked, and to cause subjects to feel more relaxed. In contrast, Mental Stimulation and 4x4 breathing were found to be the least useful to reduce stress. Salivary measures were determined in these same student pharmacists, to evaluate whether they provide similar outcomes when evaluating the effects of relaxation and non-relaxation techniques on student pharmacists as compared to survey results