Second-Best Fairness: The Trade-Off between False Positives and False Negatives

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Cappelen, Alexander W.; Cappelen, Cornelius; Tungodden, Bertil
• 署名单位: Norwegian School of Economics (NHH); University of Bergen
• 刊物名称: AMERICAN ECONOMIC REVIEW
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0002-8282
• DOI: 10.1257/aer.20211015
• 发表日期: 2023
• 页码: 2458-2485
• 关键词: social preferences; intergenerational mobility; RESPONSIBILITY; PUNISHMENT; INEQUALITY; demand; equity; WORLD; error

摘要

A main focus in economics is how to design optimal policies in second-best situations, which often requires a trade-off between giving some individuals more than they deserve, false positives, and others less than they deserve, false negatives. This paper provides novel evidence on people's second-best fairness preferences from large-scale experimental studies in the United States and Norway. The majority of people are more concerned with false negatives than with false positives, but we document substantial heterogeneity in second-best fairness preferences between the countries and across the political spectrum. The findings shed light on the political economy of social insurance and redistribution.