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Does Delegation Undermine Accountability? Experimental Evidence on the Relationship Between Blame Shifting and Control

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  • Adam Hill

Abstract

A small but growing literature in experimental economics finds that principals can shift responsibility for blameworthy behavior to agents, even when those agents are effectively powerless. Prior work in this field measures blameworthy behavior only indirectly, however. It uses modified dictator games to measure attributions of blame for inequitable allocations of wealth. Yet participants might find inequitable allocations of wealth not blameworthy. Thus, such indirect measures leave open the possibility that prior work is not measuring blame shifting at all. This article corrects for a crucial shortcoming by providing a direct measure of blame‐shifting behavior. It reports and discusses first‐of‐its‐kind experimental evidence that shows that principals can delegate to powerless intermediaries in order to evade blame.

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  • Adam Hill, 2015. "Does Delegation Undermine Accountability? Experimental Evidence on the Relationship Between Blame Shifting and Control," Journal of Empirical Legal Studies, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 12(2), pages 311-339, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:wly:empleg:v:12:y:2015:i:2:p:311-339
    DOI: 10.1111/jels.12074
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    Cited by:

    1. Berthold Rittberger & Helena Schwarzenbeck & Bernhard Zangl, 2017. "Where Does the Buck Stop? Explaining Public Responsibility Attributions in Complex International Institutions," Journal of Common Market Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 55(4), pages 909-924, July.
    2. Till Feier & Jan Gogoll & Matthias Uhl, 2021. "Hiding Behind Machines: When Blame Is Shifted to Artificial Agents," Papers 2101.11465, arXiv.org.
    3. Sarel, Roee & Demirtas, Melanie, 2021. "Delegation in a multi-tier court system: Are remands in the U.S. federal courts driven by moral hazard?," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 68(C).
    4. Wang, Long & Murnighan, J. Keith, 2016. "Two- rather than one-way streets: Agents as causal forces in principals’ unethical decisions," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 132(PA), pages 217-227.

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