The Value of Income, Safety and Elections across the World

Alicia Adsera, Andreu Arenas and Carles Boix

No 26204, RFBerlin Discussion Paper Series from ROCKWOOL Foundation Berlin (RFBerlin)

Abstract: We examine how individuals value fundamental political and economic goods and institutions through a global conjoint experiment fielded in eight countries (Argentina, urban China, India, Mexico, the Philippines, Singapore, South Africa, and the United States). Respondents choose between societies that randomly vary in economic outcomes (personal income, country income, income inequality, social mobility), safety, and political outcomes (public healthcare, free elections). We estimate the marginal effects of and willingness to pay for these outcomes at the country and respondent levels. Average valuations of personal and country incomes and personal safety are roughly similar across countries. By contrast, the average value of democracy, defined as free elections, varies substantially. Whereas the average Chinese respondent is willing to give up democracy for an increase in individual income equivalent to one quarter of average country income, the average American is willing to do so only for twice the U.S. average country income. Unlike income and safety, for which most individual-level variation is explained by respondents' personal characteristics, variation in respondents' taste for free elections is substantially explained by their country. Our findings contribute to research on the structure of human preferences, demand for democratic institutions, and estimation of policy and redistributive preferences.

Keywords: democracy; safety; willingness to pay; conjoint experiment (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: H11 H51 I13 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2026-07
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-exp and nep-pol
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