Does the opportunity to give affect real effort provision? A laboratory experiment

• Main Authors: Ghwee, Ciqin, Liu, Yiliang, Ng, Yan Qi
• Other Authors: Hong Fuhai
• Format: Final Year Project
• Language: English
• Published: 2015
• Subjects: DRNTU::Social sciences::Economic theory
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10356/62458
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

Professionals such as lawyers and accountants are given the chance to contribute to social good by doing pro bono work on top of their professional work. This additional work could have an impact on the performance of their professional duty. Hence, this research examines the effect of an opportunity to give on effort level provision. 66 undergraduates participated in an effort exertion task in a laboratory setting. Only 1 out of 2 groups was given the opportunity to give to a designated charity. From parametric statistical analysis, (1) subjects with the opportunity but did not give put in a significantly lower effort than subjects without the opportunity. However, (2) subjects in the treatment group who chose to give put in a marginally significant higher effort than those who chose not to. Further analysis reveals that (3) subjects who were given the opportunity to give and reported high stress put in a highly significant lower effort than subjects who reported high stress but were not given the opportunity. These findings could have implications on pro bono work undertaken by professionals. Though such voluntary work is meaningful, employers should ensure that their professionals are able to manage the stress before committing to work outside of their professional duties.