Too Lucky to Be True: Fairness Views under the Shadow of Cheating

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Bortolotti, Stefania; Soraperra, Ivan; Sutter, Matthias; Zoller, Claudia
• 署名单位: Max Planck Society
• 刊物名称: REVIEW OF ECONOMICS AND STATISTICS
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0034-6535
• DOI: 10.1162/rest_a_01394
• 发表日期: 2025-05
• 页码: 771-785
• 关键词: inequality; opportunity; preferences; EQUALITY; aversion; QUALITY

摘要

Income inequalities within societies are often associated with evidence that the rich are more likely to behave unethically and evade more taxes. We study how fairness views and preferences for redistribution are affected when cheating may, but need not, be the cause of income inequalities. In our experiment, we let third parties redistribute income between a rich and a poor stakeholder. In one treatment, income inequality was due only to luck, whereas in two others rich stakeholders might have cheated. The mere suspicion of cheating changes third parties' fairness views considerably and leads to a strong polarization that is even more pronounced when cheating generates negative externalities.