Selfish Equality

Morten Nyborg Støstad ()
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Morten Nyborg Støstad: Dept. of Economics, Norwegian School of Economics and Business Administration, Postal: NHH, Department of Economics, Helleveien 30, N-5045 Bergen, Norway, https://sites.google.com/view/morten-stostad

No 15/2026, Discussion Paper Series in Economics from Norwegian School of Economics, Department of Economics

Abstract: This paper introduces a theory of popular support for inequality reduction based on rational self-interest. In a controlled experiment across 40 countries and 92,696 respondents, I isolate altruistic transfers from self-preserving transfers made to avoid perceived negative consequences of inequality. Many non-altruistic individuals transfer to individuals with smaller allocations to protect themselves from harmful consequences, creating selfish equality. Across countries, selfish equality accounts for substantially more cross-country variation in societal redistribution than altruistic giving or any other leading alternative explanation from the literature. The results suggest that redistributive societies are not distinguished by particular fairness views, but by a shared belief that equality is pragmatically beneficial for all citizens.

Keywords: Selfish equality; fairness views (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C91 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 77 pages
Date: 2026-10-02
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-evo and nep-exp
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