The demand and supply for esteem: an experimental analysis

Paul Blacklow, Amy Beth Corman () and Hugh Sibly
Additional contact information
Amy Beth Corman: Deparment of Economics, University of Melbourne, https://fbe.unimelb.edu.au/economics

No 2018-03, Working Papers from University of Tasmania, Tasmanian School of Business and Economics

Abstract: People enjoy judging and receiving the approval of others. They may modify their behaviour in costly ways to obtain such approval. This paper presents an experiment in which some participants can, at a cost, appear to others to have a better performance on a real effort task than they really do. The only motivation for such an action is esteem seeking. The provision of esteem is also recorded. We measure esteem seeking when participants are facing both high and low performing partners. We model our experiment theoretically: individuals generate income party to undertake consumption but also partly to gain esteem. Our results are consistent with theory: those with low marginal utility of consumption engage in esteem seeking.

Keywords: Esteem; Image; Laboratory Experiment (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C92 D91 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 47 pages
Date: 2018
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-cbe, nep-exp and nep-upt
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Published by the University of Tasmania. Discussion paper 2018-03

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Related works:
Journal Article: The Demand and Supply of Esteem: An experimental analysis (2021)
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