CEIS-Tor Vergata is pleased to inform you that, on Friday October 31st, 2014 at 12.00 pm, Fabrizio Adriani (University of Leichester) will present a paper on “A Theory of Esteem Based Peer Pressure” ABSTRACT We propose a theory of peer pressure based on existing signaling models of esteem. Focusing in particular on the model devised by Benabou and Tirole (2006, 2011), we analyze how the incentives to perform a status enhancing task change as the distribution of peers' attributes changes. We provide comparative statics on the effects of an increase in the average quality of peers, an increase in the heterogeneity of peers, and other manipulations of the peers' distribution. We find that a change in average peers' quality may generate both a ``keeping up with the Jonses'' effect, where better peers increase one's incentive to perform the task, but also a ``big fish in a little pond'' effect, where better peers cause discouragement. Which effect emerges depends on the difficulty of the task and on the precise shape of the distribution of peers' ability (unimodal, bimodal). In contrast with the result on average peers' quality, we find that an increase in peers' heterogeneity unambiguously increases the incentives to perform the task. We discuss applications to education, racial segregation, and conspicuous consumption. The Seminar will be held at the Faculty of Economics, University of Rome "Tor Vergata", B-building, 1° floor, room B Please, go to www.ceistorvergata.it for the complete list of seminars and events at CEIS. How to reach us: http://web.uniroma2.it/mobilita/index.html http://www.economia.uniroma2.it/area.asp?a=867 Barbara Piazzi __________ Informazioni da ESET NOD32 Antivirus, versione del database delle firme digitali 10632 (20141028) __________ Il messaggio è stato controllato da ESET NOD32 Antivirus. www.nod32.it |
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