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How to elicit distributional preferences: A stress-test of the equality equivalence test

Author

Listed:
  • Michal Krawczyk
  • Fabrice Le Lec

    (LEM - Lille économie management - UMR 9221 - UA - Université d'Artois - UCL - Université catholique de Lille - Université de Lille - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique)

Abstract

The experimental measurement of social preferences has led to somewhat equivocal results. The experimental Equality Equivalence Test proposed by Kerschbamer (2015) is a promising, simple, model-free and comprehensive tool for eliciting distributional social preferences. We here assess the validity of this method by modifying it so that we can test its key assumption: that the strength of the concern for the inactive player depends only on whether her payoff is above or below that of the decision-maker. In general, we find that this assumption holds. Moreover, the prevalence of types of social preferences that we observe is similar to that in the original paper, with selfish and quasi-maximin (Charness and Rabin 2002) being the most common.

Suggested Citation

  • Michal Krawczyk & Fabrice Le Lec, 2021. "How to elicit distributional preferences: A stress-test of the equality equivalence test," Post-Print hal-03130257, HAL.
    • Handle: RePEc:hal:journl:hal-03130257
    DOI: 10.1016/j.jebo.2020.11.028
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Cited by:

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    2. Begoña Cabeza;, 2023. "Social preferences, support for redistribution, and attitudes towards vulnerable groups," Working Papers 2308, Herman Deleeck Centre for Social Policy, University of Antwerp.
    3. Hedegaard, Morten & Kerschbamer, Rudolf & Müller, Daniel & Tyran, Jean-Robert, 2021. "Distributional preferences explain individual behavior across games and time," Games and Economic Behavior, Elsevier, vol. 128(C), pages 231-255.
    4. Yosuke Hashidate & Tetsuya Kawamura & Fabrice Le Lec & Yusuke Osaki & Benoît Tarroux, 2024. "Impure motivations in social preferences: Experimental evidence from menu choices," Working Papers 2406, Groupe d'Analyse et de Théorie Economique Lyon St-Étienne (GATE Lyon St-Étienne), Université de Lyon.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Social preference; Fairness models; Distributive justice; Indifference curves; Altruism; Concern for efficiency; Inequity aversion; Quasi-maximin;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • C9 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Design of Experiments
    • D03 - Microeconomics - - General - - - Behavioral Microeconomics: Underlying Principles

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