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The tyranny puzzle in social preferences: an empirical investigation

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  • Cowell, Frank A.
  • Fleurbaey, Marc
  • Tungodden, Bertil

Abstract

When forming their preferences about the distribution of income, rational people may be caught between two opposite forms of “tyranny.” Giving absolute priority to the worst-off imposes a sort of tyranny on the rest of the population, but giving less than absolute priority imposes a reverse form of tyranny where the worst-off may be sacrificed for the sake of small benefits to many well-off individuals. We formally show that this intriguing dilemma is more severe than previously recognised, and we examine how people negotiate such conflicts with a questionnaire-experimental study. Our study shows that both tyrannies are rejected by a majority of the participants, which makes it problematic for them to define consistent distributive preferences on the distribution.

Suggested Citation

  • Cowell, Frank A. & Fleurbaey, Marc & Tungodden, Bertil, 2015. "The tyranny puzzle in social preferences: an empirical investigation," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 61663, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    • Handle: RePEc:ehl:lserod:61663
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    Cited by:

    1. Tarroux, Benoît, 2019. "The value of tax progressivity: Evidence from survey experiments," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 179(C).
    2. Benoît Tarroux, 2017. "The value of progressivity: Evidence from survey experiments," Economics Working Paper Archive (University of Rennes 1 & University of Caen) 2017-13, Center for Research in Economics and Management (CREM), University of Rennes 1, University of Caen and CNRS.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    social welfare; aggregation; questionnaire; income distribution;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • C1 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Econometric and Statistical Methods and Methodology: General

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