Need, equity, and accountability

Alexander Max Bauer (), Frauke Meyer, Jan Romann, Mark Siebel and Stefan Traub
Additional contact information
Alexander Max Bauer: University of Oldenburg
Frauke Meyer: Forschungszentrum Jülich GmbH
Jan Romann: University of Bremen
Mark Siebel: University of Oldenburg
Stefan Traub: Helmut Schmidt University Hamburg

Social Choice and Welfare, 2022, vol. 59, issue 4, No 1, 769-814

Abstract: Abstract We report the results of a vignette study with an online sample of the German adult population in which we analyze the interplay between need, equity, and accountability in third-party distribution decisions. We asked participants to divide firewood between two hypothetical persons who either differ in their need for heat or in their productivity in terms of their ability to chop wood. The study systematically varies the persons’ accountability for their neediness as well as for their productivity. We find that participants distribute significantly fewer logs of wood to persons who are held accountable for their disadvantage. Independently of being held accountable or not, the needier person is partially compensated with a share of logs that exceeds her contribution, while the person who contributes less is given a share of logs smaller than her need share. Moreover, there is a domain effect in terms of participants being more sensitive to lower contributions than to greater need.

Date: 2022
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DOI: 10.1007/s00355-022-01410-w

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