This paper presents a heuristic mathematical model of the evolution over time in the statistical distribution of well-being of individuals in a society. The model predicts that when individuals overvalue the more overtly conspicuous aspects of well-being in their lifestyle choices, then the...

We model the teacher-student relationship as an agency problem, where teachers are concerned with human capital formation and students --- ability signaling. The model's distinctive feature is that with grading rules unobservable for the job market the teacher finds grades costless incentives....