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The Merit Primacy Effect

Author

Listed:
  • Alexander W Cappelen
  • Karl Ove Moene
  • Siv-Elisabeth Skjelbred
  • Bertil Tungodden

Abstract

A long history in economics going back to Adam Smith has argued that people give primacy to merit—rather than luck—in distributive choices. We provide a theoretical framework formalising the merit primacy effect, and study it in a novel experiment where third-party spectators redistribute from high earners to low earners in situations where both merit and luck determine earnings. We identify a strong and consistent merit primacy effect in the spectator behaviour. The results shed new light on inequality acceptance in society, by showing how just a little bit of merit can make people significantly more inequality accepting.

Suggested Citation

  • Alexander W Cappelen & Karl Ove Moene & Siv-Elisabeth Skjelbred & Bertil Tungodden, 2023. "The Merit Primacy Effect," The Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 133(651), pages 951-970.
    • Handle: RePEc:oup:econjl:v:133:y:2023:i:651:p:951-970.
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    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1093/ej/ueac082
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    • Alexander Cappelen & Karl Ove Moene & Siv-Elisabeth Skjelbred & Bertil Tungodden, 2017. "The Merit Primacy Effect," Working Papers 2017-047, Human Capital and Economic Opportunity Working Group.

    Citations

    Blog mentions

    As found by EconAcademics.org, the blog aggregator for Economics research:
    1. The lack of demand for equality
      by chris in Stumbling and Mumbling on 2017-06-22 18:00:48

    Citations

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    Cited by:

    1. Amasino, Dianna R. & Pace, Davide Domenico & van der Weele, Joël, 2023. "Self-serving bias in redistribution choices: Accounting for beliefs and norms," Journal of Economic Psychology, Elsevier, vol. 98(C).
    2. Alexander W Cappelen & Johanna Mollerstrom & Bjørn-Atle Reme & Bertil Tungodden, 2022. "A Meritocratic Origin of Egalitarian Behaviour," The Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 132(646), pages 2101-2117.
    3. Benistant, Julien & Villeval, Marie Claire, 2019. "Unethical behavior and group identity in contests," Journal of Economic Psychology, Elsevier, vol. 72(C), pages 128-155.
    4. Rhosyn A. Almond, 2021. "Are you worthy of my help? An experiment in worthiness framing on charitable donations," Working Paper series, University of East Anglia, Centre for Behavioural and Experimental Social Science (CBESS) 21-03, School of Economics, University of East Anglia, Norwich, UK..
    5. Nina Weber, 2021. "Experience and Perception of Social Mobility - a Cross-Country Test of the Self-Serving Bias," LIS Working papers 783, LIS Cross-National Data Center in Luxembourg.
    6. Dezső, Linda & Loewenstein, George, 2019. "Self-serving invocations of shared and asymmetric history in negotiations," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 120(C).
    7. Lu, Kelin, 2025. "Silver spoons and scales of justice: The fairness preference over unequal intergenerational wealth transfers between Americans and Chinese," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 236(C).
    8. Margot Belguise & Yuchen Huang & Zhexun Mo, 2024. "Non-meritocrats or choice-reluctant meritocrats? A redistribution experiment in China and France," Discussion Papers 2024-05, Nottingham Interdisciplinary Centre for Economic and Political Research (NICEP).
    9. Wiese, Juliane V. & Powdthavee, Nattavudh & Yeo, Jonathan X.W. & Riyanto, Yohanes E., 2025. "Unveiling the effects of hidden luck and merit on redistribution in groups," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 117(C).
    10. Belguise, Margot & Huang, Yuchen & Mo, Zhexun, 2023. "Non-Meritocrats or Choice-Reluctant Meritocrats? A Redistribution Experiment in China and France," The Warwick Economics Research Paper Series (TWERPS) 1476, University of Warwick, Department of Economics.
    11. Dezső, Linda & Loewenstein, George, 2019. "Self-serving invocations of shared and asymmetric history in negotiations," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 120(C).
    12. Andrea Pogliano, 2024. "Born That Way: Beliefs about Genetics’ Importance and Redistribution Preferences," Tinbergen Institute Discussion Papers 24-017/I, Tinbergen Institute.
    13. Edwin Ip & Andreas Leibbrandt & Joseph Vecci, 2020. "How Do Gender Quotas Affect Workplace Relationships? Complementary Evidence from a Representative Survey and Labor Market Experiments," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 66(2), pages 805-822, February.
    14. Margot Belguise & Yuchen Huang & Zhexun Mo, 2023. "The Non-Meritocrats or Conformist Meritocrats? A Redistribution Experiment in China and France," World Inequality Lab Working Papers halshs-04423661, HAL.
    15. Lléo-Bono, A., 2025. "Social Value Orientation and Unequal Productivity: Optimizing Collaboration in the Workplace," Cambridge Working Papers in Economics 2555, Faculty of Economics, University of Cambridge.
    16. Pei-Hsun Hsieh & Reuben Kline, 2025. "Deservingness heuristics drive redistributive choices, but weights on recipient effort vary," Humanities and Social Sciences Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 12(1), pages 1-12, December.
    17. Pat Pataranutaporn & Nattavudh Powdthavee & Pattie Maes, 2025. "Algorithmic Inheritance: Surname Bias in AI Decisions Reinforces Intergenerational Inequality," Papers 2501.19407, arXiv.org, revised Feb 2025.
    18. repec:cam:camjip:2521 is not listed on IDEAS
    19. Kristoffer Berg & Morten Håvarstein & Magnus E. Stubhaug, 2024. "Meritocratic Labor Income Taxation," CESifo Working Paper Series 11058, CESifo.
    20. Michele Bernasconi & Enrico Longo & Valeria Maggian, 2023. "When merit breeds luck (or not): an experimental study on distributive justice," Working Papers 2023:02, Department of Economics, University of Venice "Ca' Foscari".
    21. repec:osf:socarx:vcuzp_v1 is not listed on IDEAS
    22. Cohn, Alain & Jessen, Lasse J. & Klašnja, Marko & Smeets, Paul, 2023. "Wealthy Americans and redistribution: The role of fairness preferences," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 225(C).

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • C93 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Design of Experiments - - - Field Experiments
    • D31 - Microeconomics - - Distribution - - - Personal Income and Wealth Distribution
    • D63 - Microeconomics - - Welfare Economics - - - Equity, Justice, Inequality, and Other Normative Criteria and Measurement

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