Inequality and redistribution behavior in a give-or-take game.

ABSTRACT: Political polarization and extremism are widely thought to be driven by the surge in economic inequality in many countries around the world. Understanding why inequality persists depends on knowing the causal effect of inequality on individual behavior. We study how inequality affects redistribution behavior in a randomized "give-or-take" experiment that created equality, advantageous inequality, or disadvantageous inequality between two individuals before offering one of them the opportunity to either take from or give to the other. We estimate the causal effect of inequality in representative samples of German and American citizens (n = 4,966) and establish two main findings. First, individuals imperfectly equalize payoffs: On average, respondents transfer 12% of the available end

SUBMITTER: Bechtel MM 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5889654 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature