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Evaluating Real World Income Distributions behind the Veil of Ignorance - How Risk Averse do You have to be to Prefer Europe over the US?

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  • Tasneem Zafar
  • Alfons J. Weichenrieder

Abstract

The paper uses a veil of ignorance approach and income distribution data of developed countries to arrive at inequality corrected income rankings. While a risk neutral individual (based on year 2000 data) would have preferred to be born into the US rather than any European country in our sample except Luxembourg, a coefficient of relative risk aversion of 2 suffices to make several European countries look preferable. The paper also sheds light on the risk corrected average income on a gender basis and scans for times of diminished expectations, i.e. periods where the expected utility of being born into a country has reduced over time.

Suggested Citation

  • Tasneem Zafar & Alfons J. Weichenrieder, 2011. "Evaluating Real World Income Distributions behind the Veil of Ignorance - How Risk Averse do You have to be to Prefer Europe over the US?," LIS Working papers 572, LIS Cross-National Data Center in Luxembourg.
    • Handle: RePEc:lis:liswps:572
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    References listed on IDEAS

    as
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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Income distribution; veil of ignorance; cross country comparison;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D31 - Microeconomics - - Distribution - - - Personal Income and Wealth Distribution
    • H23 - Public Economics - - Taxation, Subsidies, and Revenue - - - Externalities; Redistributive Effects; Environmental Taxes and Subsidies

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