Measuring tastes for equity and aggregate wealth behind the veil of ignorance
Year: 2025
Type: article
Abstract: We propose an instrument to measure individuals' social preferences regarding equity and efficiency behind a veil of ignorance while controlling for idiosyncratic risk preferences. We construct a battery of portfolio and wealth distribution choice problems sharing a common budget set. A given bundle induces the same distribution over an individual's wealth in both problems. The portfolio choice solely reflects an individual's risk attitude, providing a benchmark to evaluate whether their wealth distribution choice exhibits equity or efficiency preferring tastes. Our experiments show clusters of social preference types, which are unexpectedly independent of risk preferences.
Source: Games and Economic Behavior
Authors: Jan Heufer, Jason Shachat, Yan Xu
Institutions: Durham University, University of Groningen
Language: English
Subfield: Safety Research
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
SDG: Reduced inequalities
Open Access status: hybrid
Estimated APC paid: $2,720
Award: G966503246
OpenAlex ID: W2910669651