The influence premium of monetary status

Andrea Martinangeli and Biljana Meiske

Working Papers from Max Planck Institute for Tax Law and Public Finance

Abstract: The transmission of adaptively valuable behaviours requires individuals who are more likely to possess them to have greater influence over others’ actions. The conferment of high status to the fittest is functional to this objective. We ask to what extent status recognition and the attribution of status privileges are hard wired in humans’ psychology, in a world in which status imperfectly signals underlying cognitive ability due to the accumulation and transmission of status sources. We find that randomly assigned high status grants individuals greater influence over others’ actions than randomly assigned low status. This finding does not emerge however when the advisor’s status is linked to their cognitive ability.

Keywords: Inequality; status; social; influence; ability (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C91 D02 D31 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 41
Date: 2021-07
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-evo
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (5)

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