This paper argues that an increase in the inequality of wealth prompts a stronger quest for status that in turn fosters the accumulation of wealth. It proposes a measure for an individual's want of social status. For a given level of a population?s wealth, the corresponding aggregate measure of...

Drawing on the literature of occupational status and social distance, a theory is developed of labor migration that is prompted by a desire to avoid 'social humiliation.' A closed-economy general equilibrium model that incorporates occupational status and examines the interaction between the...