The Role of Equality and Efficiency in Social Preferences

Fehr, Ernst; Naef, Michael; Schmidt, Klaus M. (Oktober 2004): The Role of Equality and Efficiency in Social Preferences. SFB/TR 15 Discussion Paper No. 30

Abstract

Engelmann and Strobel (AER 2004) claim that a combination of efficiency seeking and minmax preferences dominates inequity aversion in simple dictator games. This result relies on a strong subject pool effect. The participants of their experiments were undergraduate students of economics and business administration who self-selected into their field of study and learned early on that efficiency is desirable. We show that for non-economists the preference for efficiency is much less pronounced. We also find a gender effect indicating that women are more egalitarian than men. However, perhaps surprisingly, the dominance of equality over efficiency is unrelated to political attitudes.

• Dokumententyp: Paper (Discussion Paper)
• Keywords: Social Preferences, Inequity Aversion, Efficiency Preferences
• Fakultät: Sonderforschungsbereiche > Discussion Paper Series of SFB/TR 15 Governance and the Efficiency of Economic Systems ; Sonderforschungsbereiche > Discussion Paper Series of SFB/TR 15 Governance and the Efficiency of Economic Systems > A4 - Unvollständige Verträge, Marktinteraktion und soziale Vergleichsprozesse ; Volkswirtschaft ; Volkswirtschaft > Lehrstühle > Seminar für Wirtschaftstheorie
• Themengebiete: 300 Sozialwissenschaften > 330 Wirtschaft
• JEL Classification: C7, C91, C92, D63, D64
• Sprache: Englisch
• ID: 13518