THE MERIT PRIMACY EFFECT

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Cappelen, Alexander W.; Moene, Karl Ove; Skjelbred, Siv-Elisabeth; Tungodden, Bertil
• 署名单位: University of Oslo
• 刊物名称: ECONOMIC JOURNAL
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0013-0133
• DOI: 10.1093/ej/ueac082
• 发表日期: 2023
• 页码: 951-970
• 关键词: social preferences; fairness; equity; egalitarianism; redistribution; RECIPROCITY; EFFICIENCY; mobility; illusion; aversion

摘要

A long history in economics going back to Adam Smith has argued that people give primacy to merit-rather than luck-in distributive choices. We provide a theoretical framework formalising the merit primacy effect, and study it in a novel experiment where third-party spectators redistribute from high earners to low earners in situations where both merit and luck determine earnings. We identify a strong and consistent merit primacy effect in the spectator behaviour. The results shed new light on inequality acceptance in society, by showing how just a little bit of merit can make people significantly more inequality accepting.