Effort, luck, and voting for redistribution

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Lefgren, Lars J.; Sims, David P.; Stoddard, Olga B.
• 署名单位: Brigham Young University
• 刊物名称: JOURNAL OF PUBLIC ECONOMICS
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0047-2727
• DOI: 10.1016/j.jpubeco.2016.08.012
• 发表日期: 2016
• 页码: 89-97
• 关键词: Experimental economics; Voting for redistribution; taxation

摘要

We conduct an experiment to determine how the correspondence between economic rewards and effort, as opposed to luck, affects subjects' ex post voting over redistribution. We find that a large, statistically significant proportion of both high- and low-payoff voters are willing to vote contrary to their self-interest in favor of groups that exert proportionately more effort. We confirm these results in an additional, distinct sample. We also show that when subjects' own effort is greater than the group's average effort level, they exhibit greater self-interest in voting for redistribution compared to subjects whose effort is below average. Our results have implications for both understanding individual redistributive preferences and. group voting behavior. (C) 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.