Just luck: an experimental study of risk taking and fairness

Alexander Cappelen, James Konow (), Erik Sørensen and Bertil Tungodden

MPRA Paper from University Library of Munich, Germany

Abstract: Choices involving risk significantly affect the distribution of income and wealth in society. This paper reports the results of the first experiment, to our knowledge, to study fairness views about risk-taking, specifically whether such views are based chiefly on ex ante opportunities or on ex post outcomes. We find that, even though many participants focus exclusively on ex ante opportunities, most favor some redistribution ex post. Many participants also make a distinction between ex post inequalities that reflect differences in luck and ex post inequalities that reflect differences in choices. These findings apply to both stakeholders and impartial spectators.

Keywords: fairness; justice; risk (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C91 D63 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2010-03-10
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-cbe, nep-exp and nep-hpe
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (14)

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Related works:
Journal Article: Just Luck: An Experimental Study of Risk-Taking and Fairness (2013)
Working Paper: Just Luck: An Experimental Study of Risk Taking and Fairness (2010)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:pra:mprapa:24475

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