EFFORT, PRODUCTIVITY, AND INCENTIVES IN A 1970S CHINESE PEOPLES COMMUNE

A 1970s panel data set is used to test hypotheses regarding the impacts of production team income distribution practices upon team labor supply and production levels in the collective farming era. It is hypothesized that team members worked harder the more of the revenue generated they expected to be distributed as income, and the more of that income they expected to be distributed in the form of cash. The hypothesis is tested in a recursive model containing separate equations for work effort and for output. The results are found to be at least mildly supportive of the hypothesis. © 1990.