Contract Framing and Selection in the Social Sector: The Role of Earning Expectations

About this event

While there is a small but growing research on how to motivate and retain agents in the social sector, there is a lack of evidence on two questions: who are the ‘right’ people that should be recruited to perform a pro-social task? If agent’s type is not fully observable, how can mission-driven organizations make sure to recruit the best agents? I design and implement a field experiment with an NGO that recruits Community Health Promoters (CHPs) to provide basic health services to their community in Uganda. To examine the selection of CHPs, I use different recruitment treatments that vary the earning expectation from the CHP position. The hypothesis of this experiment is that the recruitment treatments will select CHPs who possess different characteristics and motivations, and those differences may predict long-term retention and performance.