摘要：This paper considers the effect of status or relative income on work effort,
combining experimental evidence from a gift-exchange game with the analysis of
multi-country ISSP survey data. We find a consistent negative effect of others’
incomes on individual effort in both datasets. The individual’s rank in the
income distribution is a stronger determinant of effort than is others’ average
income, suggesting that comparisons are more ordinal than cardinal. In the
experiment, effort is also affected by comparisons over time: those who received
higher income offers or enjoyed higher income rank in the past exert lower
levels of effort for a given current income and rank.
