How did distributional preferences change during the Great Recession?

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Fisman, Raymond; Jakiela, Pamela; Kariv, Shachar
• 署名单位: Boston University; University System of Maryland; University of Maryland College Park; University of California System; University of California Berkeley
• 刊物名称: JOURNAL OF PUBLIC ECONOMICS
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0047-2727
• DOI: 10.1016/j.jpubeco.2015.06.001
• 发表日期: 2015
• 页码: 84-95
• 关键词: Distributional preferences; recession; redistribution

摘要

To better understand how support for redistributive policies is shaped by macroeconomic shocks, we explore how distributional preferences changed during the recent Great Recession. We conducted identical modified dictator games during both the recession and the preceding economic boom. The experiments capture subjects' selfishness (the weight on one's own payoff) and equality-efficiency tradeoffs (concerns for reducing differences in payoffs versus increasing total payoffs), which we then compare across economic conditions. Subjects exposed to recession exhibit greater selfishness and higher emphasis on efficiency relative to equality. Reproducing recessionary conditions inside the laboratory by confronting subjects with possible negative payoffs [weakly] intensifies selfishness and increases efficiency orientation, bolstering the interpretation that differing economic circumstances drive our results. (C) 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.