Awards are pre­va­lent in all socie­ties and at all times. So far, howe­ver, they have escaped the atten­ti­on of eco­no­mists. This paper pres­ents a first ana­ly­sis of awards, distin­gu­is­hing them from purely mone­ta­ry forms of rewards. Addi­tio­nal­ly, popu­lar noti­ons about the use and pre­va­lence of awards are addres­sed with descrip­ti­ve sta­tis­tics from the Inter­na­tio­nal Who’s Who.