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The Role of Personal Involvement and Responsibility in Unfair Outcomes

Author

Listed:
  • Pablo Brañas-Garza

    (Departamento de Teoría e Historia Económica, Facultad de Económicas y Empresariales, Campus de la Cartuja s/n, Universidad de Granada, E-18071 Granada, SPAIN, pbg@ugr.es)

  • Miguel A. Durán

    (Departamento de Teoría e Historia Económica, Facultad de Económicas y Empresariales, Campus El Ejido. AP. Of. Suc 4., E-29071 Málaga, SPAIN, maduran@uma.es)

  • Maria Paz Espinosa

    (Departamento de Fundamentos del Análisis Económico II, Facultad de Ciencias Económicas y Empresariales, Universidad del País Vasco/Euskal Herriko Unibertsitatea, Avenida Lehendakari Aguirre 83, E-48015 Bilbao, Spain, mariapaz.espinosa@ehu.es)

Abstract

This paper explores new motivations behind giving. Specifically, it focuses on personal involvement and responsibility to explain why decision makers give positive amounts in dictatorial decisions. The experiment is designed to uncover these motivations. Subjects face the problem of a dictator's allocation of an indivisible amount to one of two players; indivisibility creates an extremely unequal outcome and the dictator is given a chance to correct this outcome at a cost. The willingness to pay to correct the outcome is examined under different scenarios so that we learn about several features concerning preferences.

Suggested Citation

  • Pablo Brañas-Garza & Miguel A. Durán & Maria Paz Espinosa, 2009. "The Role of Personal Involvement and Responsibility in Unfair Outcomes," Rationality and Society, , vol. 21(2), pages 225-248, May.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:ratsoc:v:21:y:2009:i:2:p:225-248
    DOI: 10.1177/1043463109103900
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Cited by:

    1. Engel, Christoph & Goerg, Sebastian J., 2018. "If the worst comes to the worst: Dictator giving when recipient’s endowments are risky," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 105(C), pages 51-70.
    2. Bruttel, Lisa & Stolley, Florian, 2020. "Getting a yes. An experiment on the power of asking," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 86(C).
    3. Robson, Matthew, 2021. "Inequality aversion, self-interest and social connectedness," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 183(C), pages 744-772.
    4. Branas-Garza, Pablo, 2007. "Promoting helping behavior with framing in dictator games," Journal of Economic Psychology, Elsevier, vol. 28(4), pages 477-486, August.
    5. Pablo Brañas-Garza, 2008. "Expected Behavior in the Dictator Game," ThE Papers 08/12, Department of Economic Theory and Economic History of the University of Granada..

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    fairness; dictator game; moral cost;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • C91 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Design of Experiments - - - Laboratory, Individual Behavior
    • D63 - Microeconomics - - Welfare Economics - - - Equity, Justice, Inequality, and Other Normative Criteria and Measurement
    • D64 - Microeconomics - - Welfare Economics - - - Altruism; Philanthropy; Intergenerational Transfers

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