The Role of Equality, Efficiency, and Rawlsian Motives in Social Preferences: A Reply to Engelmann and Strobel

Ernst Fehr and Klaus M. Schmidt

No 179, IEW - Working Papers from Institute for Empirical Research in Economics - University of Zurich

Abstract: In a recent paper Engelmann and Strobl claim that a combination of a preference for efficiency and a Rawlsian motive for helping the least well-off is far more important than inequity aversion. Here we show that the relevance of the efficiency motive is largely restricted to students of economics and business administration. Students from other disciplines, adult academics from various disciplines and senior citizens value equality much higher than efficiency. Moreover, there is rather strong evidence that the relevance of the efficiency motive and the Rawlsian motive is largely restricted to non-strategic interactions.

Keywords: Social Preferences; Inequity Aversion; Efficiency preferences; Rawlsian Preferences (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C7 C91 C92 D63 D64 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-cdm and nep-mic
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (12)

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Working Paper: The Role of Equality, Efficiency, and Rawlsian Motives in Social Preferences: A Reply to Engelmann and Strobel (2004)
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