This paper examines how success-at-work, interpreted by both subjective and relative criteria, can motivate individuals to enhance their effort and utility. We employ a general specification utility function and show that the final effect of technological growth on individuals' effort and...

This paper provides a novel theory that simultaneously explains the Great Gatsby curve and the Easterlin paradox, demonstrating that these two phenomena could be driven by the same mechanism. I model positional competition, in which production opportunities are allocated according to relative...

This paper models a market for status contained in a knowledge economy. Technological progress favours the knowledge sector and inequality of income rises with productivity. It turns out that the expected utility of all agents can fall while output and productivity grow; such an outcome of...

This paper examines how success-at-work, interpreted by both subjective and relative criteria, can motivate individuals to enhance their effort and utility. We employ a general specification utility function and show that the final effect of technological growth on individuals’ effort and...

This paper shows that in a contest with the "Tullock" forms of contest success function, an increase in the number of contestants always reduces individual effort. However, when the outcome of the contest is governed by a noisy function of effort, then individual effort could either increase or...

This paper examines how success-at-work, interpreted by both subjective and relative criteria, can motivate individuals to enhance their effort and utility. We employ a general specification utility function and show that the final effect of technological growth on individuals’ effort and...