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The tyranny puzzle in social preferences: an empirical investigation

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  • Frank Cowell
  • Marc Fleurbaey
  • Bertil Tungodden

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. Copyright Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2015

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  • Frank Cowell & Marc Fleurbaey & Bertil Tungodden, 2015. "The tyranny puzzle in social preferences: an empirical investigation," Social Choice and Welfare, Springer;The Society for Social Choice and Welfare, vol. 45(4), pages 765-792, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:sochwe:v:45:y:2015:i:4:p:765-792
    DOI: 10.1007/s00355-015-0880-9
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    2. Benoît Tarroux, 2017. "The value of progressivity: Evidence from survey experiments," Economics Working Paper Archive (University of Rennes & University of Caen) 2017-13, Center for Research in Economics and Management (CREM), University of Rennes, University of Caen and CNRS.

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

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