Inequality aversion and international distribution preferences: The case of the Covid-19 vaccine rollout

Henrike Sternberg (), Janina Isabel Steinert () and Tim Büthe ()
Additional contact information
Henrike Sternberg: Technical University of Munich, TUM School of Social Sciences and Technology & TUM School of Management, Munich School of Politcs and Public Policy & Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg
Janina Isabel Steinert: Technical University of Munich, TUM School of Social Sciences and Technology & TUM School of Medicine and Health, Munich School of Politcs and Public Policy
Tim Büthe: Technical University of Munich, TUM School of Social Sciences and Technology & TUM School of Management, Munich School of Politcs and Public Policy & Duke Univery, Sanford School of Public Policy

Munich Papers in Political Economy from Munich School of Politics and Public Policy and the School of Management at the Technical University of Munich

Abstract: This paper examines how inequality aversion shapes public support of international redistributive policies. We investigate this question in the context of the global allocation of vaccines during the Covid-19 pandemic, using online survey data from incentivized behavioral games and a discrete choice experiment conducted with German citizens in April 2021 (N=2,402). We distinguish between aversion to advantageous inequality (others worse off, the ’guilt’ parameter) and aversion to disadvantageous inequality (others better off, the ’envy’ parameter). These two forms of inequality aversion shape German citizens’ attitudes towards the cross-country allocation of resources in distinct ways: While higher levels of the guilt parameter significantly increase respondents’ likelihood to prioritize an equitable vaccine allocation, the envy parameter is associated with lower support thereof. These findings suggest that inequality aversion matters for citizens’ support of redistribution beyond the national level and emphasize that distinguishing between both forms of inequality aversion is crucial.

Keywords: Distributional preferences; Inequality aversion; International inequality; Covid-19 pandemic; Support for vaccine donations; Survey experiment (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C83 D63 D91 H87 I14 I18 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 56 pages
Date: 2025-07
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-dcm
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://mgt.tum.de/fileadmin/mgt.tum.de/faculty_an ... equalityaversion.pdf

Related works:
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:aiw:wpaper:43

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in Munich Papers in Political Economy from Munich School of Politics and Public Policy and the School of Management at the Technical University of Munich Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MPPE ().