Who Really Goes to Davos? Explaining the Participation of National Economic Elites in the WEF

• In Event: Global Perspectives on Wealth and Elites

Abstract

Global elite forums are influential social spaces that contribute to elite integration, coordination and elevated status. Using exhaustive national lists of economic elites and their attributes from 17 countries, we analyze patterns of participation at the World Economic Forum’s (WEF) annual meeting in Davos. We examine a wide range of country-level, organizational and individual-level attributes as explanations for participation. We propose and evaluate several hypothetical explanations for participation, based on how elites differentiate and pursue different professional strategies. We find that explanations based on insider status and career span are not systematically associated with participation in the WEF, whereas a cosmopolitan orientation and a high position within a national economic elite hierarchy are.

Authors

• Izaura Solipa

• Kevin Young, University of Massachusetts-Amherst

• Bruno Cousin, Sciences Po (France)

• Mariana Heredia

• Anton Grau Larsen

• Hakan Johansson

• Christoph Houman Ellersgaard

• Nuno Nunes

• Paola Arrigoni

• François Denord

• François Schoenberger

• Jacob Lunding

• Peng Lu

• Thierry Rossier

• Xiaoguang Fan

• Christian Schneickert

• Johnathan Inkley

• Sean McQuade

• Maria do Carmo Botelho

• World Elite Database Team