[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"doc-seo-155158-105":3,"doc-detail-155158-en":81,"detail-sidebar-cat-0-en-105":98},{"code":4,"msg":5,"data":6},0,"ok",{"site_id":7,"language":8,"slug":9,"title":10,"keywords":11,"description":12,"schema_data":13,"social_meta":74,"head_meta":76,"extra_data":78,"updated_unix":80},105,"en","no-pain-no-gain-an-experiment-on-skill-accumulation","No Pain, No Gain - An Experiment on Skill Accumulation","","Skill accumulation requires periodic, persistent time and effort, yet skill investing differs from financial investing: no saving or borrowing, a capped maximum period investment, and declining marginal cost as cumulative investment rises. The paper builds a model for such tasks where optimal decisions favor relatively high, increasing input in early periods. Online experimental evidence shows underinvestment versus the rational path and widespread myopic optimization; repeated lifecycles improve outcomes, while peer information has limited impact, highlighting the challenge of skill acquisition even without risk or time factors.",{"@graph":14,"@context":73},[15,34,56],{"@type":16,"itemListElement":17},"BreadcrumbList",[18,23,27,31],{"item":19,"name":20,"@type":21,"position":22},"https://docshare.wps.com","Home","ListItem",1,{"item":24,"name":25,"@type":21,"position":26},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/","Document",2,{"item":28,"name":29,"@type":21,"position":30},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/research-report/","Research & Report",3,{"item":32,"name":10,"@type":21,"position":33},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/no-pain-no-gain-an-experiment-on-skill-accumulation/155158/",4,{"url":32,"name":10,"@type":35,"image":36,"author":41,"headline":10,"publisher":44,"fileFormat":47,"inLanguage":8,"description":12,"dateModified":48,"datePublished":49,"encodingFormat":47,"isAccessibleForFree":50,"interactionStatistic":51},"DigitalDocument",{"url":37,"@type":38,"width":39,"height":40},"https://docshare.wps.com/thumbnails/no-pain-no-gain-an-experiment-on-skill-accumulation/155158.png","ImageObject",300,407,{"name":42,"@type":43},"Oliver","Person",{"url":19,"name":45,"@type":46},"DocShare","Organization","application/pdf","2026-11-06","2026-08-28",true,{"@type":52,"interactionType":53,"userInteractionCount":55},"InteractionCounter",{"@type":54},"ViewAction",7,{"@type":57,"mainEntity":58},"FAQPage",[59,65,69],{"name":60,"@type":61,"acceptedAnswer":62},"What differentiates skill investment from financial investment in this paper’s model?","Question",{"text":63,"@type":64},"Skill investment cannot be saved or borrowed, has a capped maximum period investment, and becomes cheaper as cumulative past investment increases.","Answer",{"name":66,"@type":61,"acceptedAnswer":67},"What is the rational vs myopic investment pattern found in the experiment?",{"text":68,"@type":64},"The rational path calls for relatively high and increasing early-period investment, while the myopic path leads to relatively low initial investment that decreases over time.",{"name":70,"@type":61,"acceptedAnswer":71},"How does experience across repeated lifecycles affect investment and earnings?",{"text":72,"@type":64},"Experience improves investments and earnings, moving outcomes closer to better decision patterns over repeated lifecycles.","https://schema.org",{"og:url":32,"og:type":75,"og:title":10,"og:site_name":45,"og:description":12},"article",{"robots":77,"canonical":32},"index,follow",{"doc_id":79,"site_id":7},155158,1787906076,{"code":4,"msg":82,"data":83},"success",{"doc_id":79,"user_id":84,"nickname":42,"user_avatar":85,"doc_module":4,"category_id":86,"category_name":29,"doc_title":10,"doc_description":12,"doc_content":87,"file_id":88,"file_url":89,"file_type":90,"file_size":91,"view_count":55,"is_deleted":4,"is_public":22,"is_downloadable":22,"audit_status":22,"page_count":92,"language":93,"language_code":8,"site_id":7,"html_lang":8,"table_of_contents":94,"faqs":95,"seo_title":96,"seo_description":12,"update_tm":80,"read_time":97,"preview_page_count":4},8796095461610,"https://ap-avatar.wpscdn.com/davatar_276721f389ce27ea32af1340a28f341c",8,"No Pain, No Gain-An Experiment on Skill Accumulation  \nBhagya N. Gunawardena 1 , Lana Friesen2 , and Kenan Kalaycı2  \n1 School of Economics, Finance and Marketing, RMIT University, Australia  \n2 School of Economics, The University of Queensland, Australia  \nSeptember 12, 2025  \nAbstract  \nSkill accumulation requires a periodic and persistent investment of time and effort. In contrast to financial investments, investing in skills does not allow for saving or borrowing, the maximum periodical investment is capped, and the cost of investment often decreases with the person’s cumulative past investment. In this paper, we develop a model that captures the key characteristics of a skill accumulation task where it is optimal to invest relatively high and increasing input levels in earlier periods. Using an online experiment we find that most participants invest too little compared to the rational path, and that a majority of the participants’ investments are characterized by myopic optimization. Whereas individual experience over repeated lifecycles improves investments and earnings, social information about a selected peer’s investments, earnings, or confidence levels has only a limited effect. Our results demonstrate the difficulty of investing in skill acquisition even in the absence of risk and time factors.  \nKeywords: skill accumulation, peer information, online experiment, lifecycle optimization, myopic optimization  \nJEL classifications: J24, J22, D15, D83  \n1 Introduction  \nThe development of human capital through skill formation is a critical determinant of both individual achievement and overall economic productivity. This can take the form of cognitive skill development, investing in long-term research projects, learning a language, mastering a musical instrument, or engaging  \nCorresponding author: Bhagya N. Gunawardena. Email: [bhagya.gunawardena@rmit.edu.au. We are grateful](bhagya.gunawardena@rmit.edu.au. We are grateful) for helpful comments provided by audiences at the 4th BEST conference at QUT, the 15th and 16th Annual Australia and New Zealand Workshop on Experimental Economics, and 2025 ESA Asia-Pacific Meeting in Osaka, Japan. We thank the University of Queensland for financial support. The study has approval from the University of Queensland, Business, Economics and Law, Low and Negligible Risk Ethics Sub-Committee (2021/HE002132) and is pre-registered on the AEA RCT Registry (AEARCTR-0008602) .  \nin physical or athletic training, among many others. Despite the importance, individuals often underinvest in their own development across both professional and personal domains. For example, individuals may underinvest in effort when the tasks feel hard or when the future benefits of current investments are unclear (de Bruin et al., 2025; Kautz et al., 2014; St¨ahler et al., 2025; Yu et al., 2025) or prefer short term returns over long term returns (Budish et al., 2015) leading to lower life-cycle earnings and opportunities for individuals and slower growth for economies (Hanushek & Woessmann, 2010; McMahon, 2018) .1 In this paper, we isolate and examine the behavioral determinants of skill investment decisions in a controlled experiment that eliminates complicating factors such as risk, temporal discounting, externalities, and information asymmetries.  \nFirst, we develop a model that captures key characteristics of a variety of skill accumulation tasks, such as practicing an instrument, training for a marathon, or learning a language, as described earlier. We consider a dynamic optimization problem in which the individual periodically chooses how much of their endowment (time) to invest in the development of a productive skill. Investment produces an immediate reward but incurs costs. A key feature of the model is that these costs decrease with accumulated prior investment (skill stock), just as it is less painful for a fit person to run a certain distance than it is for a person who is unfit. This also characteriz","cbCaieO34XH1WAMt","https://ap.wps.com/l/cbCaieO34XH1WAMt","pdf",2432653,70,"English","# Introduction\n## Behavioral determinants of skill investment\n## Model of dynamic skill accumulation\n## Online experimental design and findings","[{\"question\":\"What differentiates skill investment from financial investment in this paper’s model?\",\"answer\":\"Skill investment cannot be saved or borrowed, has a capped maximum period investment, and becomes cheaper as cumulative past investment increases.\"},{\"question\":\"What is the rational vs myopic investment pattern found in the experiment?\",\"answer\":\"The rational path calls for relatively high and increasing early-period investment, while the myopic path leads to relatively low initial investment that decreases over time.\"},{\"question\":\"How does experience across repeated lifecycles affect investment and earnings?\",\"answer\":\"Experience improves investments and earnings, moving outcomes closer to better decision patterns over repeated lifecycles.\"}]","No Pain, No Gain - An Experiment on Skill Accumulation | PDF",176,{"code":4,"msg":82,"data":99},[100,104,108,111,116,121,125,128,133,136,140],{"id":22,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":101,"show_sort_weight":102,"slug":103},"Story & Novel",90,"story-novel",{"id":26,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":105,"show_sort_weight":106,"slug":107},"Literature",80,"literature",{"id":33,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":109,"show_sort_weight":92,"slug":110},"Exam","exam",{"id":112,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":113,"show_sort_weight":114,"slug":115},5,"Comic",60,"comic",{"id":117,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":118,"show_sort_weight":119,"slug":120},6,"Technology",50,"technology",{"id":55,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":122,"show_sort_weight":123,"slug":124},"Healthcare",40,"healthcare",{"id":86,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":29,"show_sort_weight":126,"slug":127},30,"research-report",{"id":129,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":130,"show_sort_weight":131,"slug":132},9,"Religion & Spirituality",20,"religion-spirituality",{"id":131,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":134,"show_sort_weight":131,"slug":135},"World Cup","world-cup",{"id":137,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":138,"show_sort_weight":137,"slug":139},10,"Lifestyle","lifestyle",{"id":141,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":142,"show_sort_weight":112,"slug":143},19,"General","general"]