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Who shows solidarity with the irresponsible?

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  • Bolle, Friedel
  • Costard, Jano

Abstract

In the Solidarity game lucky winners of a lottery can transfer part of their income to unlucky losers. Will losers get smaller transfers if they can be assumed to be responsible for their zero income because they have chosen riskier lotteries? Or will risk-lovers and riskaverters favor those who made the same risk-choice, leading to larger transfers within rather than between the risk-groups? While there is support for both motives in the literature, in an experiment we find that the effect of holding people responsible for their actions is overcome by behavior guided by in-group favoritism based on different levels of risk-taking. This behavior is successfully described by a variant of the social utility function suggested by Cappelen et al. (2013).

Suggested Citation

  • Bolle, Friedel & Costard, Jano, 2013. "Who shows solidarity with the irresponsible?," Discussion Papers, Research Unit: Economics of Change SP II 2013-308, WZB Berlin Social Science Center.
    • Handle: RePEc:zbw:wzbeoc:spii2013308
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Cited by:

    1. Strobl, Renate & Wunsch, Conny, 2018. "Risky Choices and Solidarity: Why Experimental Design Matters," Working papers 2018/17, Faculty of Business and Economics - University of Basel.
    2. Strobl, Renate & Wunsch, Conny, 2017. "Does Voluntary Risk Taking Affect Solidarity? Experimental Evidence from Kenya," IZA Discussion Papers 10906, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    3. Vieider, Ferdinand M. & Cingl, Lubomír & Martinsson, Peter & Stojic, Hrvoje, 2013. "Separating attitudes towards money from attitudes towards probabilities: Stake effects and ambiguity as a test for prospect theory," Discussion Papers, WZB Junior Research Group Risk and Development SP II 2013-401, WZB Berlin Social Science Center.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Risky Behaviour; Solidarity; Responsibility; In-Group Favoritism;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D3 - Microeconomics - - Distribution
    • D8 - Microeconomics - - Information, Knowledge, and Uncertainty

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