原文期刊：哈佛商业评论
原文标题：When Economic Incentives Backfire
本文就经济激励产生适得其反结果的现象做了深入探讨。这是一篇现象分析型文章，按照“指出现象——分析现象——总结全文”的脉络展开论述，可以分为三大部分。
【原文】
ⅠOrganizations and societies rely on fines and rewards to harness people's self-interest in the service of the common good. The threat of a ticket keeps drivers in line, and the promise of a bonus inspires high performance. But incentives can also backfire, diminishing the very behavior they're meant to encourage. 
ⅡExperimental economists have found that offering to pay women for donating blood decreases the number willing to donate by almost half, and that letting them contribute the payment to charity reverses the effect. Consider another example: When six day-care center
s in Haifa, Israel, began fining parents for late pickups, the number of late parents doubled. The fine seems to have reduced their ethical obligation to avoid inconveniencing the teachers and let them to think of lateness as simply a commodity they could purchase. 
ⅢDozens of recent experiments show that rewarding self-interest with economic incentives can backfire when they undermine what Adam Smith called “the moral sentiments.” The psychology here has confused blackboard economists, but it will be no surprise to people in business: When we take a job or buy a car, we are not only trying to get stuff - we are also trying to be a certain kind of person. People desire to be esteemed by others and to be seen as ethical and dignified. And they don't want to be taken for suckers. Rewarding blood donations may backfire because it suggests that the donor is less interested in being unselfish than in making a buck. 
ⅣPerhaps most important, incentives affect what our actions signal, whether we're being self-interested or civic-minded, manipulated or trusted, and they can imply - sometimes wrongly - what motivates us. Fines or public blames that appeal to our moral sentiments by
signaling social disapproval (think of littering) can be highly effective. But incentives go wrong when they offend or diminish our ethical sensibilities. 
ⅤThis does not mean it's impossible to appeal to self-interested and ethical motivations at the same time - just that efforts to do so often fail. Ideally, policies support socially valued ends not only by harnessing self-interest but also by encouraging public-spiritedness. The small tax on plastic grocery bags enacted in Ireland in 2002 that resulted in their virtual elimination appears to have had such an effect. It punished offenders monetarily while conveying a moral message. Carrying a plastic bag joined wearing a fur coat in the gallery of antisocial out-dated substances. 
ⅥUnderstanding why Irish shoppers responded positively to the fine, unlike Haifa parents, is the next challenge. How to reliably design collaborative incentives will be a hot topic for behavioral economists in the coming years. Meanwhile, organizational and social policy makers would do well to examine their incentive systems to see whether they're unwittingly encouraging the opposite of the behavior they desire. 
【词汇短语】
1.backfire [ˌbækˈfaɪə(r)] v.产生事与愿违的不良(或危险)后果
2.civic-minded a. 热心公益的
3.harness [ˈhɑ:nɪs] v. 控制
4.incentive [ɪnˈsentɪv] n. 激励，刺激
5.reverse [rɪˈvɜ:s] v. 使完全相反
6.undermine [ˌʌndəˈmaɪn] v. 逐渐削弱(信心、权威等)
7.appeal to sth 启发
8.blackboard economics 黑板经济学，指新古典(微观)经济学理论成立的前提条件过于抽象，不能解决实际经济(社会)问题。罗纳德·哈里·科斯曾把西方二十世纪初形成的主流经济学称之为“黑板经济学”，这种经济学只注重抽象的演算，忽视现实的经济现象，就如同闭门造车。
9.do well 最好还是
10.go wrong 出问题
11.in line 排成队
12.make a buck 挣钱
13.take for 错认某人为……
【翻译点评】
Ⅰ①Organizations and societies rely on fines and rewards to harness people's self-interest in the service of the common good. ②The threat of a ticket keeps drivers in line, and the promise of a bonus inspires high performance.③ But incentives can also backfire, diminishing the very behavior they're meant to encourage. 
翻译：各类组织和团体依靠和奖金来控制人们在公益服务中的自私自利。交通违章单的威胁可使驾车者保持队列，而关于奖金红利的许诺可以激发高业绩。但是激励也可能产
生适得其反的结果——减少原本想要鼓励的行为。
点评：第一、二段为第一部分，提出观点：经济激励可能起到与预期相反的效果。前两段提到了两类例子，形成段间转折关系。第一段前两句用两个例子表明，经济激励(赏、罚)可以控制人们在公益服务中的自私自利(开罚单这种经济激励惩罚自私自利，控制了要遏制的行为；红利许诺这种经济激励奖励私利，鼓励了好表现)。末句出现转折指出，经济激励可能适得其反。
Ⅱ①Experimental economists have found that offering to pay women for donating blood decreases the number willing to donate by almost half, and that letting them contribute the payment to charity reverses the effect.② Consider another example: When six day-care centers in Haifa, Israel, began fining parents for late pickups, the number of late parents doubled. ③The fine seems to have reduced their ethical obligation to avoid inconveniencing the teachers and let them to think of lateness as simply a commodity they could purchase. 
翻译：实验经济学家发现，给捐血女性提供报酬使愿意捐血的人数减少了将近一半，而让她
们将捐血所得贡献给福利事业扭转了这个局面。来看看另一个例子：当以列海法市的六间日托中心开始对接孩子迟到的家长时，迟到的家长人数翻了一番。似乎减少了家长们避免带给老师不便的道德责任，并使他们认为迟到只不过是一件可以购买的商品。

版权声明：本站内容均来自互联网，仅供演示用，请勿用于商业和其他非法用途。如果侵犯了您的权益请与我们联系QQ:729038198，我们将在24小时内删除。