Preferences for redistributive justice: A participatory-democracy experiment

O. Chanel (), S. Luchini (), M. Teschl () and A. Trannoy ()
Additional contact information
O. Chanel: Aix-Marseille Univ, CNRS, EHESS, AMSE
S. Luchini: Aix-Marseille Univ, CNRS, EHESS, AMSE
M. Teschl: Aix-Marseille Univ, CNRS, EHESS, AMSE
A. Trannoy: Aix-Marseille Univ, CNRS, EHESS, AMSE

The Journal of Economic Inequality, 2025, vol. 23, issue 3, No 6, 717-747

Abstract: Abstract This paper tests experimentally how preferences for redistribution of members of the general public depend on how money is earned. An experiment was designed to form of “micro-participatory-democracy”where redistribution from winners to losers is decided through a sequential strategy-proof majority voting procedure. Based on five distributive justice theories, we elicit people’s preferences for redistribution when their earnings come from four factors: effort, social circumstances, brute luck, and option luck. In the aggregate, our results show that a relative majority of people agree with Dworkin’s cut, namely, to compensate for social circumstances and brute luck but not effort and option luck. Participants with bad outcomes are more likely to engage in a self-serving vote, but on average, the dominant concern in voting remains people’s fairness view. The knowledge of the distribution of earnings and petition for equality of opportunity make participants vote more in favor of redistribution.

Keywords: Social justice; Micro participatory-democracy; Equality of opportunity; Responsibility; Experiment (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s10888-025-09706-4 Abstract (text/html)
Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.

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:spr:joecin:v:23:y:2025:i:3:d:10.1007_s10888-025-09706-4

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.springer.com/journal/10888

DOI: 10.1007/s10888-025-09706-4

Access Statistics for this article

The Journal of Economic Inequality is currently edited by Stephen Jenkins

More articles in The Journal of Economic Inequality from Springer, Society for the Study of Economic Inequality Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().