In search of unanimously preferred income distributions. Evidence from a choice experiment

Sophie Cetre (), Max Lobeck (), Claudia Senik () and Thierry Verdier
Additional contact information
Sophie Cetre: Sciences Po - Sciences Po
Max Lobeck: PSE - Paris School of Economics - UP1 - Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne - ENS-PSL - École normale supérieure - Paris - PSL - Université Paris Sciences et Lettres - EHESS - École des hautes études en sciences sociales - ENPC - École nationale des ponts et chaussées - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique - INRAE - Institut National de Recherche pour l’Agriculture, l’Alimentation et l’Environnement
Claudia Senik: PSE - Paris School of Economics - UP1 - Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne - ENS-PSL - École normale supérieure - Paris - PSL - Université Paris Sciences et Lettres - EHESS - École des hautes études en sciences sociales - ENPC - École nationale des ponts et chaussées - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique - INRAE - Institut National de Recherche pour l’Agriculture, l’Alimentation et l’Environnement, PJSE - Paris Jourdan Sciences Economiques - UP1 - Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne - ENS-PSL - École normale supérieure - Paris - PSL - Université Paris Sciences et Lettres - INRA - Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique - EHESS - École des hautes études en sciences sociales - ENPC - École nationale des ponts et chaussées - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, UP4 - Université Paris-Sorbonne

Working Papers from HAL

Abstract: Using a choice-experiment in the lab, we look at preferences over pairs of income distributions within small groups in a firm-like setting. Is one type of distribution capable of attracting votes unanimously? It turns out that Pareto-dominance is the most important choice criterion: in binary choices over two distributions, all subjects prefer larger inequality when it makes everyone weakly better off. This is true,no matter whether income distribution is based on merit or luck. Unanimity only breaks once subjects' positions within the income distribution are fixed and known ex-ante. However, even then, 75% subjects prefer Pareto-dominant distributions. This suggests that efficiency motives are of primary importance, more so than the origin of inequality.

Keywords: Distributive preferences; Inequality; Choice experiment (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018-08
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-exp
Note: View the original document on HAL open archive server: https://shs.hal.science/halshs-01863359v1
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://shs.hal.science/halshs-01863359v1/document (application/pdf)

Related works:
Working Paper: In search of unanimously preferred income distributions. Evidence from a choice experiment (2018)
Working Paper: In search of unanimously preferred income distributions. Evidence from a choice experiment (2018)
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:hal:wpaper:halshs-01863359

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in Working Papers from HAL
Bibliographic data for series maintained by CCSD ().