Shifting the Blame: On Delegation and Responsibility

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Bartling, Bjoern; Fischbacher, Urs
• 署名单位: University of Zurich; University of Konstanz
• 刊物名称: REVIEW OF ECONOMIC STUDIES
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0034-6527
• DOI: 10.1093/restud/rdr023
• 发表日期: 2012
• 页码: 67-87
• 关键词: Strategic delegation; fairness; CHOICE

摘要

To fully understand the motives for delegating a decision right, it is important to study responsibility attributions for outcomes of delegated decisions. We conducted laboratory experiments in which subjects could either choose a fair allocation or an unfair allocation or delegate the choice, and we used a punishment option to elicit responsibility attributions. Our results show that, first, responsibility attribution can be effectively shifted and, second, this can constitute a strong motive for the delegation of a decision right. Moreover, we propose a simple measure of responsibility and show that this measure outperforms measures based on inequity aversion or reciprocity in predicting punishment behaviour.