Introduction -- First impressions -- Trading robots and social cues -- Animating the market -- Models and reflexivity -- Managers -- Performative spirals -- Norms -- Resonance -- The global financial crisis -- Scandal -- When all is said and done -- Conclusion.

We study the influence of the corporate board network on executive pay for 3,395 US firms over the period from 1990 to 2015. Drawing on structural anthropology and social exchange theory, we identify three elementary structures through which the interlocking network captures an obvious form of...