IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/ehl/lserod/6582.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Choices in egalitarian distribution: inequality aversion versus risk aversion

Author

Listed:
  • Kroll, Yoram
  • Davidovitz, Leima

Abstract

Inequality aversion and risk aversion are widely assumed features of economic models. But a review of the literature revealed that inequlity aversion and risk aversion are treated as separate variables. This paper presents exploratory research designed to separate inequality aversion from risk aversion. In a set of laboratory experiments, subjects chose between two alternatives with the same individuals risk, but different levels of egalitarianism. Thus, the choice of the more egalitarian alternative with constant risk level implies a higher level of inequality aversion. The experiment was conducted among 211 eight-year-old children, 107 of whom live on Kibbutz and 104 in the city. We found not significant difference between Kibbutz children and city children in inequality aversion.

Suggested Citation

  • Kroll, Yoram & Davidovitz, Leima, 1999. "Choices in egalitarian distribution: inequality aversion versus risk aversion," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 6582, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    • Handle: RePEc:ehl:lserod:6582
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/6582/
    File Function: Open access version.
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Amiel,Yoram & Cowell,Frank, 1999. "Thinking about Inequality," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9780521466967, November.
    2. Amiel, Yoram & Cowell, Frank A., 1992. "Measurement of income inequality : Experimental test by questionnaire," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 47(1), pages 3-26, February.
    3. G. Hanoch & H. Levy, 1969. "The Efficiency Analysis of Choices Involving Risk," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 36(3), pages 335-346.
    4. Rothschild, Michael & Stiglitz, Joseph E., 1970. "Increasing risk: I. A definition," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 2(3), pages 225-243, September.
    5. Kroll, Yoram & Levy, Haim & Rapoport, Amnon, 1988. "Experimental Tests of the Separation Theorem and the Capital Asset Pricing Model," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 78(3), pages 500-519, June.
    6. Baigent, Nick & Gaertner, Wulf, 1996. "Never Choose the Uniquely Largest: A Characterization," Economic Theory, Springer;Society for the Advancement of Economic Theory (SAET), vol. 8(2), pages 239-249, August.
    7. Atkinson, Anthony B., 1970. "On the measurement of inequality," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 2(3), pages 244-263, September.
    8. Kachelmeier, Steven J & Shehata, Mohamed, 1992. "Examining Risk Preferences under High Monetary Incentives: Experimental Evidence from the People's Republic of China," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 82(5), pages 1120-1141, December.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Yoram Amiel & Frank Cowell & Liema Davidovitz & Avraham Polovin, 2008. "Preference reversals and the analysis of income distributions," Social Choice and Welfare, Springer;The Society for Social Choice and Welfare, vol. 30(2), pages 305-330, February.
    2. Fredrik Carlsson & Dinky Daruvala & Olof Johansson‐Stenman, 2005. "Are People Inequality‐Averse, or Just Risk‐Averse?," Economica, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 72(287), pages 375-396, August.
    3. Pablo Brañas-Garza & Ramón Cobo-Reyes & Almudena Domínguez, 2006. ""Si el lo necesita": Gypsy fairness in Vallecas," Experimental Economics, Springer;Economic Science Association, vol. 9(3), pages 253-264, September.
    4. Cowell, Frank A. & Schokkaert, Erik, 2001. "Risk perceptions and distributional judgments," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 45(4-6), pages 941-952, May.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Leima Davidovitz & Yoram Kroll, 1999. "Choices in Egalitarian Distribution: Inequality Aversion versus Risk Aversion," STICERD - Distributional Analysis Research Programme Papers 43, Suntory and Toyota International Centres for Economics and Related Disciplines, LSE.
    2. Camacho-Cuena, Eva & Seidl, Christian & Morone, Andrea, 2005. "Comparing preference reversal for general lotteries and income distributions," Journal of Economic Psychology, Elsevier, vol. 26(5), pages 682-710, October.
    3. Fredrik Carlsson & Dinky Daruvala & Olof Johansson‐Stenman, 2005. "Are People Inequality‐Averse, or Just Risk‐Averse?," Economica, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 72(287), pages 375-396, August.
    4. Clark, Andrew E. & D'Ambrosio, Conchita, 2014. "Attitudes to Income Inequality: Experimental and Survey Evidence," IZA Discussion Papers 8136, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    5. Marko Ledić & Ivica Rubil & Ivica Urban, 2023. "Tax progressivity and social welfare with a continuum of inequality views," International Tax and Public Finance, Springer;International Institute of Public Finance, vol. 30(5), pages 1266-1296, October.
    6. Yoram Amiel & Michele Bernasconi & Frank Cowell & Valentino Dardanoni, 2015. "Do we value mobility?," Social Choice and Welfare, Springer;The Society for Social Choice and Welfare, vol. 44(2), pages 231-255, February.
    7. Yoram Amiel & Frank Cowell & Liema Davidovitz & Avraham Polovin, 2008. "Preference reversals and the analysis of income distributions," Social Choice and Welfare, Springer;The Society for Social Choice and Welfare, vol. 30(2), pages 305-330, February.
    8. Magdalou, Brice, 2021. "A model of social welfare improving transfers," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 196(C).
    9. Christian Kleiber & Walter Kraemer, 2000. "Efficiency, Equity, and Generalized Lorenz Dominance," CESifo Working Paper Series 343, CESifo.
    10. Schlör, Holger & Fischer, Wolfgang & Hake, Jürgen-Friedrich, 2012. "Measuring social welfare, energy and inequality in Germany," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 97(C), pages 135-142.
    11. Claudio Zoli, 2012. "Characterizing Inequality Equivalence Criteria," Working Papers 32/2012, University of Verona, Department of Economics.
    12. Haim Levy, 2010. "The CAPM is Alive and Well: A Review and Synthesis," European Financial Management, European Financial Management Association, vol. 16(1), pages 43-71, January.
    13. Nicolas CARAYOL & Agenor LAHATTE, 2014. "Dominance relations and ranking when quantity and quality both matter: Applications to US universities and econ. departments worldwide," Cahiers du GREThA (2007-2019) 2014-14, Groupe de Recherche en Economie Théorique et Appliquée (GREThA).
    14. Marcelo Bérgolo & Gabriel Burdín & Santiago Burone & Mauricio de Rosa & Matías Giaccobasso & Martín Leites, 2020. "Dissecting Inequality-Averse Preferences," Documentos de Trabajo (working papers) 20-19, Instituto de Economía - IECON.
    15. Kaplanski, Guy & Kroll, Yoram, 2002. "VaR Risk Measures versus Traditional Risk Measures: an Analysis and Survey," MPRA Paper 80070, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    16. Traub, Stefan & Seidl, Christian & Schmidt, Ulrich, 2009. "An experimental study on individual choice, social welfare, and social preferences," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 53(4), pages 385-400, May.
    17. Levy, Moshe, 2009. "Almost Stochastic Dominance and stocks for the long run," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 194(1), pages 250-257, April.
    18. Patrick Moyes, 2007. "An extended Gini approach to inequality measurement," The Journal of Economic Inequality, Springer;Society for the Study of Economic Inequality, vol. 5(3), pages 279-303, December.
    19. Udo Ebert, 2009. "Taking empirical studies seriously: the principle of concentration and the measurement of welfare and inequality," Social Choice and Welfare, Springer;The Society for Social Choice and Welfare, vol. 32(4), pages 555-574, May.
    20. Claudio Zoli, 2018. "A Note on Progressive Taxation and Inequality Equivalence," Research on Economic Inequality, in: Inequality, Taxation and Intergenerational Transmission, volume 26, pages 15-33, Emerald Group Publishing Limited.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Inequality; income distribution; risk; experiments;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D71 - Microeconomics - - Analysis of Collective Decision-Making - - - Social Choice; Clubs; Committees; Associations
    • D63 - Microeconomics - - Welfare Economics - - - Equity, Justice, Inequality, and Other Normative Criteria and Measurement

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:ehl:lserod:6582. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: LSERO Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/lsepsuk.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.