Three accounts of intrinsic motivation in economics: a pragmatic choice?

This paper argues that the concept of intrinsic motivation has been used by economists in inconsistent ways because underlying theories motivation, imported into economics from psychology, are competing and mutually exclusive despite employing same terminology. I first identify analyze three distinct economic accounts where refers to different things due psychological employed. then discuss implications these differences have for empirical work incentive-based policy interventions. Finally, use this discussion as a case study demonstrate shortcomings recently proposed pragmatic synthesis between neoclassical behavioral economics. If there multiple fundamentally phenomenon, using their insights analysis is hardly just matter straightforward choice among various tools economist’s toolbox.