Editing Perverse incentive (section)

=== Returns for effort ===

* The 20th-century [[Paleontology|paleontologist]] [[Gustav Heinrich Ralph von Koenigswald|G. H. R. von Koenigswald]] used to pay [[Javanese people|Javanese]] locals for each fragment of [[Hominini|hominin]] skull that they produced. He later discovered that the people had been breaking up whole skulls into smaller pieces to maximize their payments. When he cancelled the payments, many locals burned the remaining skulls they had as retaliation.<ref>{{Cite book |last1=III |first1=Carl C. Swisher |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=gVWOJgM0azoC&q=pieces&pg=PA9 |title=Java Man: How Two Geologists Changed Our Understanding of Human Evolution |last2=Curtis |first2=Garniss H. |last3=Lewin |first3=Roger |publisher=University of Chicago Press |year=2001 |isbn=978-0226787343}}</ref>
* In building the [[first transcontinental railroad]] in the 1860s, the [[United States Congress]] agreed to pay the builders per mile of track laid. As a result, [[Thomas C. Durant]] of [[Union Pacific Railroad]] lengthened a section of the route, forming a bow shape and unnecessarily adding miles of track.<ref>Mark Zwonitzer, writer, PBS American Experience documentary "Transcontinental Railroad" (2006) [https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/transcript/tcrr-transcript/ "Program Transcript . Transcontinental Railroad . WGBH American Experience"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170130153209/http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/transcript/tcrr-transcript/|date=30 January 2017}}</ref>
* Funding [[Fire department|fire departments]] by the number of fire calls that are made is intended to reward fire departments that do the most work. However, it may discourage them from [[Fire prevention|fire-prevention]] activities, leading to an increase in actual fires.<ref>Department for Communities and Local Government (2002). [http://www.local.dtlr.gov.uk/review/consult/fire.pdf "Fire"] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20040801032503/http://www.local.dtlr.gov.uk/review/consult/fire.pdf|date=2004-08-01}}. In ''Consultation on the Local Government Finance Formula Grant Distribution''. Retrieved 10 November 2006.</ref>