More from these Authors

• Book | 2013

  Happy Money: The Science of Smarter Spending

  Elizabeth Dunn and Michael Norton

  If you think money can't buy happiness, you're not spending it right. Two rising stars in behavioral science explain how money can buy happiness—if you follow five core principles of smarter spending. Happy Money offers a tour of new research on the science of spending. Most people recognize that they need professional advice on how to earn, save, and invest their money. When it comes to spending that money, most people just follow their intuitions. But scientific research shows that those intuitions are often wrong.
  Happy Money explains why you can get more happiness for your money by following five principles, from choosing experiences over stuff to spending money on others. And the five principles can be used not only by individuals, but by companies seeking to create happier employees and provide "happier products" to their customers. Dunn and Norton show how companies from Google to Pepsi to Charmin have put these ideas into action. Along the way, the authors describe new research that reveals luxury cars often provide no more pleasure than economy models, that commercials can enhance the enjoyment of watching television, and that residents of many cities frequently miss out on inexpensive pleasures in their hometowns. By the end of this book, readers will ask themselves one simple question whenever they reach for their wallets: Am I getting the biggest happiness bang for my buck?

  Citation:

  Dunn, Elizabeth, and Michael Norton. Happy Money: The Science of Smarter Spending. Simon & Schuster, 2013.

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• Working Paper | HBS Working Paper Series | 2013

  Non-Standard Matches and Charitable Giving

  Michael Sanders, Sarah Smith and Michael I. Norton

  Many organisations, including corporations and governments, wish to encourage charitable giving, and offer incentives for their employees, customers and citizens to do so. The most common of these incentives is a match rate, where the organisation agrees to pay, for example, $1 for every $1 donated. However, these incentives may not be efficient. In this short article we suggest alternative ways of matching that existing theory and data suggest might be more effective at encouraging donations. These include non-linear matching, social (and team) matching, and lottery matching—each of which novel schemes could be tested empirically against a standard match incentive.

  Citation:

  Sanders, Michael, Sarah Smith, and Michael I. Norton. "Non-Standard Matches and Charitable Giving." Harvard Business School Working Paper, No. 13–094, May 2013.

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• Working Paper | HBS Working Paper Series | 2013

  Prosocial Bonuses Increase Employee Satisfaction and Team Performance

  Lalin Anik, Lara B. Aknin, Michael I. Norton, Elizabeth W. Dunn and Jordi Quoidbach

  In two field studies, we explore the impact of providing employees and teammates with prosocial bonuses, a novel type of bonus spent on others rather than on oneself. In Experiment 1, we show that prosocial bonuses in the form of donations to charity lead to happier and more satisfied employees at an Australian bank. In Experiment 2, we show that prosocial bonuses in the form of expenditures on teammates lead to better performance in both pharmaceutical sales teams in Belgium and sports teams in Canada. These results suggest that a minor adjustment to employee bonuses—shifting the focus from the self to others—can produce measurable benefits for employees and organizations.

  Citation:

  Anik, Lalin, Lara B. Aknin, Michael I. Norton, Elizabeth W. Dunn, and Jordi Quoidbach. "Prosocial Bonuses Increase Employee Satisfaction and Team Performance." Harvard Business School Working Paper, No. 13–095, May 2013.

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