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American Economic Review Vol. 97 No. 3 2007

The Pluralism of Fairness Ideals: An Experimental Approach

Alexander W. Cappelen1; Astri Drange Hole2; Erik Ø. Sørensen3; Bertil Tungodden4

1 Centre for Ethics and Economics, Norwegian School of Economics and Business Administration, Helleveien 30, N-5045 Bergen, Norway. · 2 Department of Economics, Bergen University College, Nygårdsgaten 112, N-5020 Bergen, Norway. · 3 Department of Economics, Free University, De Boelelaan 1105, 1081 HV Amsterdam, The Netherlands · 4 Department of Economics, Norwegian School of Economics and Business Administration, Helleveien 30, N-5045 Bergen, Norway and Chr. Michelsen Institute.

open access

Abstract

A core question in the contemporary debate on distributive justice is how to understand fairness in situations involving production. Important theories of distributive justice, such as strict egalitarianism, liberal egalitarianism, and libertarianism, provide different answers to this question. This paper presents the results from a dictator game where the distribution phase is preceded by a production phase. Each player's contribution is a result of a freely chosen investment level and an exogenously given rate of return. We estimate simultaneously the prevalence of three principles of distributive justice among the players and the distribution of the weight they attach to fairness.

DOI
10.1257/aer.97.3.818
Volume
97
Issue
3
Pages
818-827
Language
en
Sources
openalex bibtex:phds-export.bib crossref

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