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An experimental study on individual choice, social welfare, and social preferences

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  • Traub, Stefan
  • Seidl, Christian
  • Schmidt, Ulrich

Abstract

We experimentally study subjects' compliance with dominance relationships of income distributions in a ranking task. The experiment consisted of four different treatments: Lottery, individual choice, social preferences, and social planner. Our results suggest that people's risk attitudes do not adequately reflect their inequality attitudes. Uninvolved social planners exhibit randomization preferences, while self-interested social planners are generally more inequality averse and try to avoid extreme outcomes.

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  • Traub, Stefan & Seidl, Christian & Schmidt, Ulrich, 2009. "An experimental study on individual choice, social welfare, and social preferences," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 53(4), pages 385-400, May.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:eecrev:v:53:y:2009:i:4:p:385-400
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