ABSTRACT

This paper argues that the concept of intrinsic motivation has been used by economists in inconsistent ways because the underlying theories of intrinsic motivation, imported into economics from psychology, are competing and mutually exclusive despite employing the same terminology. I first identify and analyze three distinct economic accounts where intrinsic motivation refers to different things due to different underlying psychological theories employed. I then discuss implications these differences have for empirical work and incentive-based policy interventions. Finally, I use this discussion as a case study to demonstrate the shortcomings of the recently proposed pragmatic synthesis between neoclassical and behavioral economics. If there are multiple and fundamentally different psychological theories of the same phenomenon, using their insights in economic analysis is hardly just a matter of a straightforward pragmatic choice among the various tools in the economist’s toolbox.

摘要

本文认为，内在动机的概念一直被经济学家以不一致的方式使用，因为从心理学引入经济学的内在动机的基本理论尽管使用了相同的术语，但却是相互竞争和相互排斥的。我首先确定并分析了三个不同的经济账户，其中内在动机是指由于采用不同的潜在心理学理论而导致的不同事物。然后，我讨论了这些差异对实证工作和基于激励的政策干预的影响。最后，我用这个讨论作为案例研究来证明最近提出的新古典经济学和行为经济学之间的实用综合的缺点。如果对同一现象有多种根本不同的心理学理论，