Silver Spoons and Scales of Justice: The Fairness Preference over Unequal Intergenerational Wealth Transfers

Intergenerational transfers are both common and markedly unequal. This study conducts a large-scale experiment to explore how Americans and Chinese perceive the fairness of unequal wealth transfers. In the experiment, workers and their parents completed assignments. Workers' payoffs originated from either (1) their own merit or luck or (2) earnings transferred from their parents, which were also earned through the parents' merit or luck. Impartial spectators made real distributive decisions that affected paired workers. Our findings reveal that Americans exhibit a pronounced aversion to intergenerational transfer inequalities compared to self-earned wealth, whereas the Chinese show only a mild aversion. Additionally, Americans demonstrate a preference for intergenerational meritocracy, accepting greater inequalities in transferred wealth when parental earnings result from merit rather than luck—a preference not evident among the Chinese. Further experiments suggest that attitudes toward unequal intergenerational wealth transfers are primarily driven by whether parents possess wealth to transfer , rather than the choice to transfer it.