Sharing the Fame but Taking the Blame: When Declaring a Single Person Responsible Solves a Free Rider Problem

Published Online:https://doi.org/10.1287/mnsc.2024.06567

References

  • Aghion P, Tirole J (1997) Formal and real authority in organizations. J. Political Econom. 105(1):1–29.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
  • Alchian AA, Demsetz H (1972) Production, information costs, and economic organization. Amer. Econom. Rev. 62(5):777–795.Google Scholar
  • Antonakis J, d’Adda G, Weber RA, Zehnder C (2022) “Just words? Just speeches?” On the economic value of charismatic leadership. Management Sci. 68(9):6355–6381.LinkGoogle Scholar
  • Baliga S, Sjöström T (1998) Decentralization and collusion. J. Econom. Theory 83:196–232.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
  • Bandiera O, Best MC, Khan AQ, Prat A (2021) The allocation of authority in organizations: A field experiment with bureaucrats. Quart. J. Econom. 136(4):2195–2242.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
  • Bandura A (1999) Moral disengagement in the perpetration of inhumanities. Personality Soc. Psych. Rev. 3(3):193–209.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
  • Bandura A, Underwood B, Fromson ME (1975) Disinhibition of aggression through diffusion of responsibility and dehumanization of victims. J. Res. Personality 9(4):253–269.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
  • Bartling B (2011) Relative performance or team evaluation? Optimal contracts for other-regarding agents. J. Econom. Behav. Organ. 79(3):183–193.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
  • Bartling B, Fischbacher U (2011) Shifting the blame: On delegation and responsibility. Rev. Econom. Stud. 79(1):67–87.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
  • Bartling B, Fischbacher U, Schudy S (2015) Pivotality and responsibility attribution in sequential voting. J. Public Econom. 128:133–139.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
  • Behnk S, Hao L, Reuben E (2017) Partners in crime: Diffusion of responsibility in antisocial behaviors. IZA Discussion Paper No. 11031, IZA, Bonn, Germany.Google Scholar
  • Bierbrauer F, Netzer N (2016) Mechanism design and intentions. J. Econom. Theory 163:557–603.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
  • Bies RJ (1987) The predicament of injustice: The management of moral outrage. Res. Organ. Behav. 9:289–319.Google Scholar
  • Bies RJ, Shapiro DL (1987) Interactional fairness judgments: The influence of causal accounts. Social Justice Res. 1:199–218.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
  • Blackstone W (1765–1770) Commentaries on the Laws of England, vol. 4 (Clarendon Press).Google Scholar
  • Bradler C, Dur R, Neckermann S, Non A (2016) Employee recognition and performance: A field experiment. Management Sci. 62(11):3085–3099.LinkGoogle Scholar
  • Brown M, Kulik CT, Lim V (2016) Managerial tactics for communicating negative performance feedback. Personality Rev. 45(5):969–987.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
  • Cappelen AW, Cappelen C, Tungodden B (2023) Second-best fairness: The trade-off between false positives and false negatives. Amer. Econom. Rev. 113(9):2458–2485.Google Scholar
  • Carvell D, Currie J, Bentley MacLeod W (2012) Accidental death and the rule of joint and several liability. RAND J. Econom. 43(1):51–77.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
  • Castro S, Englmaier F, Guadalupe M (2022) Fostering psychological safety in teams: Evidence from an RCT. Preprint, submitted July 3, https://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.4141538.Google Scholar
  • Charness G (2000) Responsibility and effort in an experimental labor market. J. Econom. Behav. Organ. 42(3):375–384.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
  • Chassang S, Zehnder C (2016) Rewards and punishments: Informal contracting through social preferences. Theoretical Econom. 11(3):1145–1179.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
  • Chaudhuri A (2011) Sustaining cooperation in laboratory public goods experiments: A selective survey of the literature. Experiment. Econom. 14(1):47–83.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
  • Che Y-K, Yoo S-W (2001) Optimal incentives for teams. Amer. Econom. Rev. 91(3):525–541.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
  • Coffman LC (2011) Intermediation reduces punishment (and reward). Amer. Econom. J. Microeconom. 3(4):77–106.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
  • Collins J, Hall N, Paul LA (2004) Counterfactuals and causation: History, problems and prospects. Causation and Counterfactuals (MIT Press, Cambridge, MA), 1–57.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
  • Committee of Public Safety (1793) Plan de travail, de surveillance et de correspondance. L’Assemblée Nationale, ed. Collection Générale des Décrets Rendus par la Convention Nationale (Baudouin, Paris), 72–74.Google Scholar
  • Currie J, Bentley MacLeod W (2008) First do no harm? Tort reform and birth outcomes. Quart. J. Econom. 123(2):795–830.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
  • Czura K, Englmaier F, Ho H, Spantig L (2024) Employee performance and mental well-being: The mitigating effects of transformational leadership during crisis. IZA Discussion Papers No. 17350, IZA, Bonn, Germany.Google Scholar
  • Dal Bo P, Foster A, Putterman L (2010) Institutions and behavior: Experimental evidence on the effects of democracy. Amer. Econom. Rev. 100(5):2205–2229.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
  • Dana J, Weber RA, Kuang JX (2007) Exploiting moral wiggle room: Experiments demonstrating an illusory preference for fairness. Econom. Theory 33(1):67–80.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
  • Darley JM, Latané B (1968) Bystander intervention in emergencies: Diffusion of responsibility. J. Personality Social Psych. 8(4p1):377.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
  • De Voltaire JFMA (1747) Zadig ou la Destinée (Lefèvre, Pairs).Google Scholar
  • Diekmann A (1985) Volunteer’s dilemma. J. Conflict Resolution 29(4):605–610.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
  • Diekmann A (1993) Cooperation in an asymmetric volunteer’s dilemma game: Theory and evidence. Internat. J. Game Theory 22:75–85.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
  • Dufwenberg M, Patel A (2017) Reciprocity networks and the participation problem. Games Econom. Behav. 101:260–272.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
  • Dur R, Sol J (2010) Social interaction, co-worker altruism, and incentives. Games Econom. Behav. 69(2):293–301.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
  • Eeckhout J, Persico N, Todd PE (2010) A theory of optimal random crackdowns. Amer. Econom. Rev. 100(3):1104–1135.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
  • Engl F (2018) A theory of causal responsibility attribution. Preprint, submitted XX, https://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2932769.Google Scholar
  • Falk A, Szech N (2013) Morals and markets. Science 340(6133):707–711.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
  • Falk A, Neuber T, Szech N (2020) Diffusion of being pivotal and immoral outcomes. Rev. Econom. Stud. 87(5):2205–2229.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
  • Feess E, Kerzenmacher F, Muehlheusser G (2020) Moral transgressions by groups: What drives individual voting behavior?” Discussion Paper 13383, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA), Bonn, Germany.Google Scholar
  • Fershtman C, Gneezy U (2001) Strategic delegation: An experiment. RAND J. Econom. 32(2):352–368.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
  • Fischer P, Krueger JI, Greitemeyer T, Vogrincic C, Kastenmüller A, Frey D, Heene M, et al. (2011) The bystander-effect: A meta-analytic review on bystander intervention in dangerous and non-dangerous emergencies. Psych. Bull. 137(4):517.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
  • Gibbons R (1997) An introduction to applicable game theory. J. Econom. Perspective 11(1):127–149.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
  • Greenberg J (1990) Organizational justice: Yesterday, today, and tomorrow. J. Management 16(2):399–432.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
  • Grossman SJ, Hart OD (1986) The costs and benefits of ownership: A theory of vertical and lateral integration. J. Political Econom. 94:691–719.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
  • Grout P (1984) Investment and wages in the absence of binding contracts: A Nash bargaining approach. Econometrica 53(2):449–460.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
  • Guerin B (1999) Social behaviors as determined by different arrangements of social consequences: Social loafing, social facilitation, deindividuation, and a modified social loafing. Psych. Rec. 49(4):565–577.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
  • Guerin B (2003) Social behaviors as determined by different arrangements of social consequences: Diffusion of responsibility effects with competition. J. Soc. Psych. 143(3):313–329.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
  • Haeckl S, Rege M (2024) Effects of supportive leadership behaviors on employee satisfaction, engagement, and performance: An experimental field investigation. Management Sci., ePub ahead of print April 4, https://doi.org/10.1287/mnsc.2022.02170.LinkGoogle Scholar
  • Halpern JY, Pearl J (2005) Causes and explanations: A structural-model approach. Part I: Causes. British J. Philosophical Sci. (56):843–887.Google Scholar
  • Harrington JE (2001) A simple game-theoretic explanation for the relationship between group size and helping. J. Math. Psych. 45(2):389–392.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
  • Holmström B (1982) Moral hazard in teams. Bell J. Econom. 13(2):324–340.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
  • Huck S, Konrad KA (2005) Moral cost, commitment, and committee size. J. Institutional Theoretical Econom. 161(4):575–588.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
  • Hume D (1748) An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding (Open Court Press, LaSalle, IL).CrossrefGoogle Scholar
  • Ilgen D, Davis C (2000) Bearing bad news: Reactions to negative performance feedback. Appl. Psych. 49(3):550–565.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
  • Itoh H (1991) Incentives to help in multi-agent situations. Econometrica 59(3):611–636.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
  • Itoh H (1992) Cooperation in hierarchical organizations: An incentive perspective. J. Law Econom. Organ. 8(2):321–345.Google Scholar
  • Itoh H (1993) Coalitions, incentives, and risk sharing. J. Econom. Theory 60(2):410–427.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
  • Kandel E, Lazear E (1992) Peer pressure and partnerships. J. Political Econom. 100(4):801–817.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
  • Kandori M (1992) Social norms and community enforcement. Rev. Econom. Stud. 59:63–80.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
  • Katzenbach JR, Smith DK (2015) The Wisdom of Teams: Creating the High-Performance Organization (Harvard Business Review Press, Cambridge, MA).Google Scholar
  • Kosfeld M, Okada A, Riedl A (2009) Institution formation in public goods games. Amer. Econom. Rev. 99(4):1335–1355.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
  • Krueger JI, Massey AL (2009) A rational reconstruction of misbehavior. Soc. Cognition 27(5):786–812.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
  • Larson JR Jr (1984) The performance feedback process: A preliminary model. Organ. Behav. Human Performance 33(1):42–76.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
  • Latané B, Nida S (1981) Ten years of research on group size and helping. Psych. Bull. 89(2):308.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
  • Legros P, Matsushima H (1991) Efficiency in partnerships. J. Econom. Theory 55(2):296–322.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
  • Legros P, Matthews SA (1993) Efficient and nearly-efficient partnerships. Rev. Econom. Stud. 60(3):599–611.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
  • Lewis D (1974) Causation. J. Philosophy 70(17):556–567.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
  • Lindbeck A, Nyberg S, Weibull JW (1999) Social norms and economic incentives in the welfare state. Quart. J. Econom. 114(1):1–35.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
  • Lübbecke S, Schnedler W (2020) Don’t patronize me! An experiment on preferences for authorship. J. Econom. Management Strategy 29(2):420–438.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
  • Manthei K, Sliwka D, Vogelsang T (2023) Talking about performance or paying for it? A field experiment on performance reviews and incentives. Management Sci. 69(4):2198–2216.LinkGoogle Scholar
  • Markussen T, Putterman L, Tyran J-R (2014) Self-organization for collective action: An experimental study of voting on sanction regimes. Rev. Econom. Stud. 81(1):301–324.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
  • McCloskey HJ (1963) A note on utilitarian punishment. Mind 72(288):599.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
  • McCloskey HJ (1965) A non-utilitarian approach to punishment. Inquiry 8(1–4):249–263.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
  • Milgrom P, Roberts J (1992) Economics, Organization and Management (Prentice Hall, Upper Saddle River, NJ).Google Scholar
  • Miller NH (1997) Efficiency in partnerships with joint monitoring. J. Econom. Theory 77(2):285–299.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
  • Mookherjee D (2006) Decentralization, hierarchies, and incentives: A mechanism design perspective. J. Econom. Literature 44(2):367–390.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
  • Oexl R, Grossman ZJ (2013) Shifting the blame to a powerless intermediary. Experiment. Econom. 16(3):306–312.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
  • Prendergast CJ (1995) A theory of responsibility in organizations. J. Labor Econom. 13(3):387–400.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
  • Rasmusen E (1987) Moral hazard in risk-averse teams. RAND J. Econom. 18(3):428–435.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
  • Ratto M, Schnedler W (2008) Too few cooks spoil the broth: Division of labour and directed production. Technical report, Department of Economics, University of Heidelberg, Heidelberg, Germany.Google Scholar
  • Rothenhäusler D, Schweizer N, Szech N (2018) Guilt in voting and public good games. Eur. Econom. Rev. 101:664–681.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
  • Schweizer U (2015) Spieltheorie und Schuldrecht (Mohr Siebeck).CrossrefGoogle Scholar
  • Shavell S (2023) On the law of the household: The principles used by parents in disciplining their children. Technical report, National Bureau of Economic Research, Cambridge, MA.Google Scholar
  • Sliwka D (2006) On the notion of responsibility in organizations. J. Law Econom. Organ. 22(2):523–547.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
  • Smith WJ, Harrington KV, Houghton JD (2000) Predictors of performance appraisal discomfort: A preliminary examination. Public Personality Management 29(1):21–32.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
  • Strausz R (1999) Efficiency in sequential partnerships. J. Econom. Theory 85(1):140–156.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
  • Villanova P, Bernardin HJ, Dahmus SA, Simes RL (1993) Rater leniency and performance appraisal discomfort. Ed. Psych. Measures 53(3):789–799.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
  • von Siemens FA (2011) Heterogeneous social preferences, screening, and employment contracts. Oxford Econom. Papers 63(3):499–522.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
  • von Siemens FA (2013) Intention-based reciprocity and the hidden costs of control. J. Econom. Behav. Organ. 92:55–65.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
  • Wilson SF (1999) Analyzing Requirements and Defining Solution Architectures: MCSD Training Kit: For Exam 70-100 Dv-McSd Training Kit (Microsoft Press, Redmond, WA).Google Scholar
  • Winter E (2004) Incentives and discrimination. Amer. Econom. Rev. 94(3):764–773.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
  • Wolff HA (1999) Der Grundsatz ‘nulla poena sine culpa’ als Verfassungsrechtssatz. Archiv Öffentlichen Rechts 124(1):55–86.Google Scholar
INFORMS site uses cookies to store information on your computer. Some are essential to make our site work; Others help us improve the user experience. By using this site, you consent to the placement of these cookies. Please read our Privacy Statement to learn more.