The Real Effects of Relational Contracts
通过实地实验，研究一家美国物流公司从一种关系契约转向另一种时，司机生产率的变化，发现新契约使生产率提高1/8个百分点，表明关系契约对生产率有重要影响。
Does the “soft side” of management matter? Many managers assert that “firm culture” is strongly correlated with productivity, but there are few robust tests of this assertion. In a set of field experiments, we study driver productivity within a large US logistics company that is arguably transitioning from one relational contract to another, while leaving formal practices and incentives unchanged. We find that sites under the new contract are associated with 1/8 percent higher productivity. Our findings suggest that relational contracts have a first-order effect on productivity and that they can be altered over time.