Niklas Wallmeier
All research

Journal article2025Honesty and cooperation in groups

The Hidden Costs of Whistleblower Protection

Niklas Wallmeier and Timo Promann

Review of Law & Economics 21(2), 535–560

JournalCite
Whistleblower protection has a hidden cost. Protection makes reports more likely. In a lab experiment, it also makes managers and employees cooperate less. Schematic, not data. WITHOUT PROTECTION WITH PROTECTION cooperate report less likely manager employee cooperate less report more likely manager employee
A schematic, not the measured sizes: protecting whistleblowers makes reports more likely, and in the lab managers and employees then cooperate less.

In short

A lab experiment on whether protecting whistleblowers, by making reports more likely, also reduces cooperation between managers and employees.

What we find

Cite

Niklas Wallmeier and Timo Promann (2025). “The Hidden Costs of Whistleblower Protection.” Review of Law & Economics 21(2), 535–560. https://doi.org/10.1515/rle-2024-0075

@article{wallmeier2025hidden,
  author = {Wallmeier, Niklas and Promann, Timo},
  title = {{The Hidden Costs of Whistleblower Protection}},
  year = {2025},
  journal = {Review of Law & Economics},
  volume = {21},
  number = {2},
  pages = {535--560},
  doi = {10.1515/rle-2024-0075}
}