Are Self-Made Men Made Equally? An Experimental Test of Impartial Redistribution and Perceptions of Self-Determination
David Chavanne et al.
What the paper says
Using a laboratory experiment, we examine if third party redistribution from a “Have” to a “Have-not” is affected by (1) whether a Have’s advantage is in some way self-determined and (2) whether self-determination occurs in two dimensions compared to one dimension. We find that redistribution decreases if a Have earns an advantageous opportunity or earns income. But we also find that redistribution does not decrease any further if a Have earns both an opportunity and income. These results suggest that, in line with existing work, the perception that advantages are self-determined matters for redistribution. But the results also suggest that, once one develops the perception that self-determination exists, additional dimensions self-determination may not matter on the margin. We also find that stakeholders’ expectations of redistribution do not depend on whether advantages in the experiment are self-determined. Expectations instead depend on whether a stakeholder is a Have or a Have-not.
8 citations
Evidence weight
Balanced mode · F 0.40 / M 0.15 / V 0.05 / R 0.40
| F · citation impact | 0.53 × 0.4 = 0.21 |
| M · momentum | 0.65 × 0.15 = 0.10 |
| V · venue signal | 0.50 × 0.05 = 0.03 |
| R · text relevance † | 0.50 × 0.4 = 0.20 |
† Text relevance is estimated at 0.50 on the detail page — for your query’s actual relevance score, open this paper from a search result.