Preview

PDF 2018-03_Blacklo...pdf | Download (548kB) | Preview

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.

Item Type:	Report (Discussion Paper)
Authors/Creators:	Blacklow, P and Corman, AB and Sibly, H
Keywords:	Esteem, Image, Laboratory Experiment JEL classification numbers: C92 D91
Publisher:	University of Tasmania
Copyright Information:	Copyright 2018 University of Tasmania
Additional Information:	Discussion Paper Series N 2018-03
Item Statistics:	View statistics for this item

Actions (login required)

Item Control Page