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Money and Status: How Best to Incentivize Work

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Abstract

Status is greatly valued in the real world, yet it has not received much attention from economic theorists. We examine how the owner of a firm can best combine money and status to get her employees to work hard for the least total cost. We find that she should motivate workers of low skill mostly by status and high skill mostly by money. Moreover, she should do so by using a small number of titles and wage levels. This often results in star wages to the elite performers and, more generally, in wage jumps for small increases in productivity. By analogy, the governance of a society should pay special attention to the status concerns of ordinary citizens, which may often be accomplished by reinforcing suitable social norms.

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  • Pradeep Dubey & John Geanakoplos, 2017. "Money and Status: How Best to Incentivize Work," Cowles Foundation Discussion Papers 1954R2, Cowles Foundation for Research in Economics, Yale University.
    • Handle: RePEc:cwl:cwldpp:1954r2
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    Cited by:

    1. Evangelos V. Dioikitopoulos & Stephen J. Turnovsky & Ronald Wendner, 2020. "Dynamic Status Effects, Savings, And Income Inequality," International Economic Review, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania and Osaka University Institute of Social and Economic Research Association, vol. 61(1), pages 351-382, February.
    2. Nikzad, Afshin, 2021. "Persuading a pessimist: Simplicity and robustness," Games and Economic Behavior, Elsevier, vol. 129(C), pages 144-157.
    3. Lu, Jingfeng & Shen, Bo & Wang, Zhewei, 2024. "Performance bundling in multi-dimensional competitions," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 95(C).

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Status; Incentives; Wages;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • C70 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Game Theory and Bargaining Theory - - - General
    • I20 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - General
    • I30 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Welfare, Well-Being, and Poverty - - - General

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