Tim Besley delivers the Richard Ely Distinguished Lecture Series 2008

Tim Besley has been invited to give 3 lectures in the prestigious Richard Ely Distinguished Lecture Series during the week of 14th April 2008 at Johns Hopkins University. More details can be found at www.econ.jhu.edu.

Status Incentives by Timothy Besley and Maitreesh Ghatak

"Status Incentives" by Tim Besley and Maitreesh Ghatak will be published in the American Economic Review, Papers and Proceedings, in May 2008.

Abstract: When economists study incentives in organizations, the main focus has been on using monetary payments in exchange for performance on specific measurable dimensions. But organizations use a wide variety of means to motivate their workers. One such method which has not been studied much to date, is the explicit creation of status rewards attached to good performance. In this paper, the authors consider the role of such status awards as an incentive device.