The Influence Premium of Monetary Status

Abstract

The transmission of adaptively valuable behaviours requires individuals who are more likely to possess them to have greater influence over others’ actions. The conferment of high status to the fittest is functional to this objective. We ask to what extent status recognition and the attribution of status privileges are hard wired in humans’ psychology, in a world in which status imperfectly signals underlying cognitive ability due to the accumulation and transmission of status sources. We find that randomly assigned high status grants individuals greater influence over others’ actions than randomly assigned low status. This finding does not emerge however when the advisor’s status is linked to their cognitive ability.

Keywords: C91, D02, D31

JEL Classification: Inequality, status, social influence, ability