unSILOed with Greg LaBlanc

249. Getting the Right Results from Incentives feat. Uri Gneezy

20 Feb 2023

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Humans respond to incentives just like any other animal, but it’s important to make sure to use the right incentive to get the results that you desire because sometimes incentives can lead to unintended outcomes. Uri Gneey holds a chair in Behavioral Economics and is Professor of Economics and Strategy at the University of California, San Diego. He is also an author and his latest book, Mixed Signals: How Incentives Really Work will be released in March. Uri is also the co-author of The Why Axis: Hidden Motives and the Undiscovered Economics of Everyday Life with John A. List.Uri and Greg discuss the differing ways in which Psychologists and Economists look at incentives, and go over examples of companies like Coca Cola and Toyota using incentives that led to surprising outcomes. They discuss the difference between incentives for quantity versus quality, and how to incentivize the right things in the right way. Uri reveals the results of money incentives in paying people to go to the gym, take tests, or even paying them to quit their jobs. It all revolves around Uri’s axiom that if you understand the signal behind the incentive and can control it you gain a large advantage.Episode Quotes:The advantage of understanding signals32:07: Gifts are really signals of something, right? They're extremely inefficient. Imagine how much time and money is wasted on people going around before Christmas looking for gifts and trying to find something that will match, and then other people have to return it. Just give cash─but it signals what you think about the other person, and the signals, controlling those signals─that's my argument: if you understand that incentive sends the signal, and you control it, you can get a big advantage.Knowing the right questions will help you get the right answers. 49:34: The problem is that today there is so much data that people think that it's all out there, but they don't know how to get interesting answers because there are lots of people who know how to answer questions. You have very few people who know how to ask questions.Should we incentivize quantity?18:29: Very often, people incentivize the quantity instead of the quality dimension, and economists call it multitasking. Turns out that in such situations, what you'll get is exactly what you pay for. (19:38) The quantity versus quality is a really important thing. Don't just incentivize quantity because people are just going to produce more. The quality will go down.Show Links:Recommended Resources:More Information about PISA TestsGary BeckerAwards: Tangibility, Self-Signaling and Signaling to OthersAdam SmithFriedrich HayekJohn List unSILOed episodeGuest Profile:Faculty Profile at UCSD Rady School of ManagementFaculty Profile at UCSD Policy Design and Evaluation LabProfessional Profile on Gneezy.comProfessional Profile on The Decision Lab Uri Gneezy on TwitterUri Gneezy on LinkedInHis Work:Uri Gneezy on Google ScholarMixed Signals: How Incentives Really WorkThe Why Axis: Hidden Motives and the Undiscovered Economics of Everyday Life Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

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13:00H | 21 DIC 2025 | Fin de Semana

01 Jan 1970

Fin de Semana

10:00H | 21 DIC 2025 | Fin de Semana

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12:00H | 20 DIC 2025 | Fin de Semana

01 Jan 1970

Fin de Semana

2ª PARTE | 06 ENE 2026 | EL PARTIDAZO DE COPE

01 Jan 1970

El Partidazo de COPE

3ª PARTE | 22 ENE 2026 | EL PARTIDAZO DE COPE

01 Jan 1970

El Partidazo de COPE

3ª PARTE | 04 MAR 2026 | EL PARTIDAZO DE COPE

01 Jan 1970

El Partidazo de COPE

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unSILOed with Greg LaBlanc

249. Getting the Right Results from Incentives feat. Uri Gneezy

This episode hasn't been transcribed yet

Other recent transcribed episodes

13:00H | 21 DIC 2025 | Fin de Semana

10:00H | 21 DIC 2025 | Fin de Semana

12:00H | 20 DIC 2025 | Fin de Semana

2ª PARTE | 06 ENE 2026 | EL PARTIDAZO DE COPE

3ª PARTE | 22 ENE 2026 | EL PARTIDAZO DE COPE

3ª PARTE | 04 MAR 2026 | EL PARTIDAZO DE COPE

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