Work

The Pluralism of Fairness Ideals: An Experimental Approach

Year: 2007

Type: article

Abstract: A core question in the contemporary debate on distributive justice is how to understand fairness in situations involving production. Important theories of distributive justice, such as strict egalitarianism, liberal egalitarianism, and libertarianism, provide different answers to this question. This paper presents the results from a dictator game where the distribution phase is preceded by a production phase. Each player's contribution is a result of a freely chosen investment level and an exogenously given rate of return. We estimate simultaneously the prevalence of three principles of distributive justice among the players and the distribution of the weight they attach to fairness. (JEL D63)

Source: American Economic Review

DOI: 10.1257/aer.97.3.818

Authors: Alexander W Cappelen, Astri Drange Hole, Erik Ø Sørensen, Bertil Tungodden

Institutions: Norwegian School of Economics, Høgskolen i Bergen, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, Chr. Michelsen Institute

Language: English

Topic: Experimental Behavioral Economics Studies

Subfield: Economics and Econometrics

Field: Economics, Econometrics and Finance

Domain: Social Sciences

SDG: Peace, justice, and strong institutions

Open Access status: green

Funder: Norges Forskningsråd