Joint seminar with LSC—The Laws of Social Cohesion and part of the seminar series Preventing Corporate Misconduct.

Law makers increasingly try to capitalize on individuals having acquired knowledge of corporate crimes or other misconduct by inducing them to blow the whistle. In a laboratory experiment we measure the effectiveness of incentives on the willingness to report such misconduct to a sanctioning authority. We find that fines for non-reporting insiders, rewards and even simple commands increase the probability of whistleblowing. We find the strongest effect for fines. Situational determinants also influence the willingness to blow the whistle: insiders who are negatively affected by the misconduct are more likely to blow the whistle than non-affected or profiting insiders. Those (negatively affected) victims are also sensitive to the misconduct’s impact on the authority sanctioning the misconduct (public authority or employer): whistleblowing is more likely if the enforcement authority is negatively affected compared to positively or not affected.

Time & Location

7 February 2024 | 6:00–7:30 p.m.
In-person & online
Business School | Thielallee 73 | Room 013
Join via fuels.berlin/webex