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Acceptance of Inequality Between Children: Large-Scale Experimental Evidence from China and Norway

Author

Listed:
  • Alexander W Cappelen
  • Ranveig Falch
  • Zhongjing Huang
  • Bertil Tungodden

Abstract

In a novel large-scale experiment, we study how adults in two societies, Shanghai (China) and Norway, make real distributive decisions involving children. We find that acceptance of inequality between children increases with the ages of the children, is affected by the source of inequality and the cost of redistribution, and is lower than acceptance of inequality between adults. We document a large cross-societal difference in inequality acceptance: adults in Shanghai implement twice as much inequality between children compared with adults in Norway. Finally, we show that the willingness to accept inequality between children is predictive of attitudes to child policies.

Suggested Citation

  • Alexander W Cappelen & Ranveig Falch & Zhongjing Huang & Bertil Tungodden, 2025. "Acceptance of Inequality Between Children: Large-Scale Experimental Evidence from China and Norway," The Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 135(667), pages 999-1020.
    • Handle: RePEc:oup:econjl:v:135:y:2025:i:667:p:999-1020.
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    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1093/ej/ueae097
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    Cited by:

    1. Falch, Ranveig, 2022. "How do people trade off resources between quick and slow learners?," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 150(C).
    2. Gu, Jiancheng & Hauser, Christina Sarah & Zhu, Ziyue Jessie, 2025. "A Comment on "Acceptance of Inequality between Children: Large-Scale Experimental Evidence from China and Norway" by Cappelen et al. (2025)," I4R Discussion Paper Series 268, The Institute for Replication (I4R).
    3. 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).

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • D63 - Microeconomics - - Welfare Economics - - - Equity, Justice, Inequality, and Other Normative Criteria and Measurement

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