The Role of Equality and Equity in Social Preferences

Fehr, Ernst; Näf, Michael and Schmidt, Klaus M. (February 2005): The Role of Equality and Equity in Social Preferences. Discussion Papers in Economics 2005-19

Abstract

Engelmann and Strobel (AER 2004) question the relevance of inequity aversion in simple dictator game experiments claiming that a combination of a preference for efficiency and a Rawlsian motive for helping the least well-off is more important than inequity aversion. We show that these results are partly based on a strong subject pool effect. The participants of the E&S experiments were undergraduate students of economics and business administration who self-selected into their field of study (economics) and learned in the first semester that efficiency is desirable. We show that for non-economists the preference for efficiency is much less pronounced. We also find a non-negligible gender effect indicating that women are more egalitarian than men. However, perhaps surprisingly, the dominance of equality over efficiency is unrelated to political attitudes.

• Item Type: Paper (Discussion Paper)
• Keywords: Social Preferences; Inequity Aversion; Efficiency Preferences
• Subjects: Economics; Economics > Discussion Papers in Economics; Economics > Discussion Papers in Economics > Behavioral Economics; Economics > Discussion Papers in Economics > Game Theory
• Dewey Classification: 300 Social sciences; 300 Social sciences > 330 Wirtschaft
• Journal of Economic Literature classification: C7, C91, C92, D63, D64
• Language: English