When Economic Incentives Backfire (journal article)
By Samuel Bowles
from Harvard Business Review Vol 87 Iss 3 Mar 2009, pp. 22-23
"The article offers the author's views on economic incentives and questions the effectiveness of social policy that is based on rewards and economic incentives. Topics include a tax on plastic grocery bags in Ireland, self-interest and public ethics, the idea of economist Richard Titmuss who claimed that incentives reduce supplies, and an experiment with incentives in Israel."