The causes and economic consequences of envy

Abstract

In this lecture I first give an explanation for invidious preferences based on the (evolutionary) competition for resources. Then I show that these preferences have wide ranging and empirically relevant effects on labor markets, such as: workplace skill segregation, gradual promotions, wage increases that have no relation with productivity and downward wage flexibility. I suggest that labor and human resource economics can benefit from including envy into the standard set of factors considered in their theoretical and empirical models.