Preferences for Redistribution and Perception of Fairness: An Experimental Study. Issue 4 (1st August 2014)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Durante, Ruben; Putterman, Louis; van der Weele, Joël
• Is Part Of: Journal of the European Economic Association. Volume 12:Issue 4(2014:Aug.)
• Page Start: 1059
• Page End: 1086
• Publication Date: 2014-08-01
• Subjects: D31 -- P16 -- H24 -- C91; Economics -- Periodicals; Économie politique -- Périodiques; Science économique; Périodique électronique (Descripteur de forme); Ressource Internet (Descripteur de forme); 330
• DOI: 10.1111/jeea.12082
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1542-4766

Abstract

Abstract: We conduct a laboratory experiment to study how demand for redistribution of income depends on self-interest, insurance motives, and social concerns relating to inequality and efficiency. Our choice environments feature large groups of subjects and real-world framing, and differ with respect to the source of inequality (earned or arbitrary), the cost of taxation to the decision maker, the dead-weight loss of taxation, uncertainty about own pretax income, and whether the decision maker is affected by redistribution. We estimate utility weights for the different sources of demand for redistribution, with the potential to inform modeling in macroeconomics and political economy