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Revealed Distributional Preferences: Individuals vs. Teams

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  • Balafoutas, Loukas
  • Kerschbamer, Rudolf
  • Kocher, Martin G.
  • Sutter, Matthias

Abstract

We compare experimentally the revealed distributional preferences of individuals and teams in allocation tasks. We find that teams are significantly more benevolent than individuals in the domain of disadvantageous inequality while the benevolence in the domain of advantageous inequality is similar across decision makers. A consequence for the frequency of preference types is that while a substantial fraction of individuals is classified as inequality averse, this type disappears completely in teams. Spiteful types are markedly more frequent among individuals than among teams. On the other hand, by far more teams than individuals are classified as efficiency lovers.

Suggested Citation

  • Balafoutas, Loukas & Kerschbamer, Rudolf & Kocher, Martin G. & Sutter, Matthias, 2013. "Revealed Distributional Preferences: Individuals vs. Teams," Discussion Papers in Economics 15728, University of Munich, Department of Economics.
    • Handle: RePEc:lmu:muenec:15728
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    3. Philipp Dörrenberg & Christoph Feldhaus, 2022. "How Does Group-Decision Making Affect Subsequent Individual Behavior?," CESifo Working Paper Series 9513, CESifo.
    4. Haoran He & Marie Claire Villeval, 2014. "Are teams less inequality averse than individuals?," Post-Print halshs-01077253, HAL.
    5. Greiff, Matthias & Ackermann, Kurt & Murphy, Ryan O., 2016. "The influences of social context on the measurement of distributional preferences," VfS Annual Conference 2016 (Augsburg): Demographic Change 145529, Verein für Socialpolitik / German Economic Association.
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    7. Micaela M. Kulesz & Dennis A. V. Dittrich, 2014. "It's not you, it's me: an experimental study of employers' wage setting behavior," Economics Bulletin, AccessEcon, vol. 34(4), pages 2128-2137.
    8. Fu, Qiang & Ke, Changxia & Tan, Fangfang, 2015. "“Success breeds success” or “Pride goes before a fall”?," Games and Economic Behavior, Elsevier, vol. 94(C), pages 57-79.
    9. Yonas Alem & Martin G. Kocher & Simon Schürz & Fredrik Carlsson & Mikael Lindahl, 2023. "Distributional preferences in adolescent peer networks," Experimental Economics, Springer;Economic Science Association, vol. 26(1), pages 223-248, March.
    10. João V. Ferreira & Erik Schokkaert & Benoît Tarroux, 2023. "How group deliberation affects individual distributional preferences: An experimental study," Working Papers 2301, Groupe d'Analyse et de Théorie Economique Lyon St-Étienne (GATE Lyon St-Étienne), Université de Lyon.
    11. Martin G. Kocher & Odile Poulsen & Daniel J. Zizzo, 2017. "Social preferences, accountability, and wage bargaining," Social Choice and Welfare, Springer;The Society for Social Choice and Welfare, vol. 48(3), pages 659-678, March.
    12. Balafoutas, Loukas & García-Gallego, Aurora & Georgantzis, Nikolaos & Jaber-Lopez, Tarek & Mitrokostas, Evangelos, 2020. "Rehabilitation and social behavior: Experiments in prison," Games and Economic Behavior, Elsevier, vol. 119(C), pages 148-171.
    13. Detemple, Julian & Kosfeld, Michael, 2023. "Fairness and Inequality in Institution Formation," IZA Discussion Papers 16464, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    14. Gunnar Brandt & Micaela M Kulesz & Dennis Nissen & Agostino Merico, 2017. "OGUMI—A new mobile application to conduct common-pool resource experiments in continuous time," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 12(6), pages 1-14, June.
    15. He, Haoran & Villeval, Marie Claire, 2017. "Are group members less inequality averse than individual decision makers?," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 138(C), pages 111-124.
    16. Thomas Epper & Julien Senn & Ernst Fehr, 2023. "Social preferences across subject pools: students vs. general population," ECON - Working Papers 435, Department of Economics - University of Zurich, revised Jan 2024.
    17. Matthias Greiff & Kurt A. Ackermann & Ryan O. Murphy, 2018. "Playing a Game or Making a Decision? Methodological Issues in the Measurement of Distributional Preferences," Games, MDPI, vol. 9(4), pages 1-25, October.
    18. Kerschbamer, Rudolf, 2015. "The geometry of distributional preferences and a non-parametric identification approach: The Equality Equivalence Test," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 76(C), pages 85-103.
    19. Haoran He & Marie Claire Villeval, 2014. "Are team members less inequality averse than individual decision makers?," Working Papers halshs-00996545, HAL.
    20. Tan, Charmaine H.Y., 2021. "The effects of group decision-making on social preferences: An experimental study," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 190(C), pages 134-153.
    21. He, Haoran & Jiang, Shuguang, 2020. "Partisan culture, identity and corruption: An experiment based on the Chinese Communist Party," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 60(C).

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Distributional Preferences; Social Preferences; Team Decisions; Individual Decisions; Stability of Preferences; Behavioral Economics; Experimental Economics;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • C91 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Design of Experiments - - - Laboratory, Individual Behavior
    • C92 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Design of Experiments - - - Laboratory, Group Behavior
    • D03 - Microeconomics - - General - - - Behavioral Microeconomics: Underlying Principles
    • D63 - Microeconomics - - Welfare Economics - - - Equity, Justice, Inequality, and Other Normative Criteria and Measurement
    • D64 - Microeconomics - - Welfare Economics - - - Altruism; Philanthropy; Intergenerational Transfers

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