Selfishness and Altruism in the Distribution of Travel Time and Income

Nebiyou Tilahun and David Levinson

No 23, Working Papers from University of Minnesota: Nexus Research Group

Abstract: Most economic models assume that individuals act out their preferences based on their own self interest. However there have also been other paradigms in the economics literature that have tried to capture alternative manifestations of human behavior that include fairness. This study examines people's preferences when it comes to their travel time and their income and what type of trade offs they are willing to make to live in a society where the distributions of travel time and income are fairer. Using a stated preference experiment we find that when it comes to travel time, individuals are more concerned with societal average travel time, followed by their own travel time and finally by large inequalities in the society, while in the case of income they are more concerned with their own income, followed by societal average and finally by inequality.

Keywords: Fairness; Inequality; Travel Time; Income; Altruism; Stated Preference; Veil of ignorance; Equity; Time equity; Income Equity; Time distribution; Income Distribution. (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: A13 C91 D10 D31 D81 R41 R42 R48 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2006
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Published in Transportation 40(5) pp 1043-1061

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http://hdl.handle.net/11299/180036 Second version, 2013 (application/pdf)

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Journal Article: Selfishness and altruism in the distribution of travel time and income (2013)
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