A Meritocratic Origin of Egalitarian Behaviour

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Cappelen, Alexander W.; Mollerstrom, Johanna; Reme, Bjorn-Atle; Tungodden, Bertil
• 署名单位: Norwegian School of Economics (NHH); George Mason University; Research Institute of Industrial Economics (IFN); Norwegian Institute of Public Health (NIPH); Norwegian School of Economics (NHH)
• 刊物名称: ECONOMIC JOURNAL
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0013-0133
• DOI: 10.1093/ej/ueac008
• 发表日期: 2022
• 页码: 2101-2117
• 关键词: social preferences; risk preferences; fairness; welfare; COMPETITION; demand; redistribution; scandinavians; americans; ECONOMICS

摘要

We report from a study of how uncertainty about whether a given inequality reflects performance or luck shapes distributive behaviour. We show theoretically that the reaction to uncertainty depends on how people trade-off the probability of making a mistake when redistributing, and the size of this mistake. We show experimentally that uncertainty causes a strong egalitarian pull among a majority of meritocratic individuals. The theoretical framework and the experimental results are supported in general population surveys in the United States and Norway. Our findings suggest that how people handle uncertainty about the source of inequality may be of great importance for understanding distributive conflicts in society.