Can positional goods in the form of orders of merit substitute for monetary compensation in providing incentives for CEOs? To empirically study this I make use of a natural experiment in the form of a 1974 legal reform in which Sweden discontinued the conferral of orders of merit to nationals. The difference-in-difference methodology I employ contrasts CEOs who had already received an order at the time of the abolishment of the orders of merit system (control group), to those CEO who had not yet received an order (treatment group). Emplyed on a detailed set of miro level data this methodology will enable me to isolate the role played by positional goods in terms of providing incentives.