Econ Papers Daily / 期刊论文
全球公平性研究
Fairness Across the World
摘要
This paper provides the first comprehensive global evidence on people’s fairness and efficiency preferences, beliefs about the sources of inequality and the efficiency cost of redistribution, and policy attitudes toward redistribution. Using a globally harmonized consequential experiment with more than 65,000 individuals across 60 countries, we show that the source of inequality plays a substantially larger role for inequality acceptance than the efficiency cost of redistribution. At the global level, implemented inequality increases by 85 percent when inequality is caused by merit rather than luck, compared to a 14 percent increase when redistribution entails a 50 percent efficiency cost. We document substantial heterogeneity in fairness views and beliefs both within and across societies. The meritocratic fairness view is most prominent in many richer Western societies, while libertarian and egalitarian fairness views are widespread in many other parts of the world. Globally, people are more likely to believe that inequality reflects luck rather than merit, while beliefs in large efficiency costs of redistribution are relatively weak. Fairness preferences and beliefs are strongly associated with redistribution attitudes and actual redistribution through taxes and transfers across countries. Our findings illustrate how the interaction between fairness views and beliefs may shape redistribution across societies, highlighting the importance of jointly understanding preferences and beliefs in the political economy of redistribution.
中文摘要
本文提供了关于人们公平与效率偏好、对不平等根源及再分配效率成本的信念，以及对再分配政策态度的首份全球性综合证据。通过一项涵盖60个国家、超过65,000名参与者的全球统一后果实验，我们表明，不平等的根源在不平等接受度中所起的作用远大于再分配的效率成本。在全球层面，当不平等源于才能而非运气时，实际不平等程度增加了85%，相比之下，当再分配涉及50%的效率成本时，仅增加了14%。我们记录了公平观念和信念在各类社会内部及跨社会间的显著异质性。精英主义的公平观在许多较富裕的西方社会中最为突出，而自由主义和平均主义的公平观在世界其他许多地区广泛存在。全球范围内，人们更倾向于认为不平等反映的是运气而非才能，而对再分配存在高额效率成本的信念相对较弱。公平偏好和信念与再分配态度及各国通过税收和转移支付实现的实际再分配密切相关。我们的发现揭示了公平观念与信念之间的相互作用如何可能塑造各社会的再分配格局，强调了在再分配的政治经济学中共同理解偏好与信念的重要性。