Inequality, Welfare and Income Distribution Experimental Approaches

Book details for Inequality, Welfare and Income Distribution

Series: Research on Economic Inequality v. 11

Edition: 11th Revised edition

Contributor(s): F.A. Cowell (editor),

Format: Hardback, 235 x 165 x 19mm , 247 pp, black & white illustrations

Publication date: 01 Jul 2004

Imprint: JAI Press Inc.

ISBN: 9780762311132

Price: £75.95

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Synopsis

The emerging literature on experimental methods in connection with economic inequality has shed fresh light on how to think about inequality, how important issues of equality are in comparison with other economic objectives and how individuals incorporate criteria of equality and fairness into their own decisions. This volume covers a wide range of topics in the field of income distribution and extends the approach to related issues such as mobility and attitudes to risk. The selection of papers includes both participatory experiments - where individuals respond to economic incentives - and questionnaire experiments designed to investigate the extent to which individuals' values and attitudes conform to the way that economists and others conventionally model inequality and welfare.

Reviews

Ten papers investigate topics relating to inequaltiy, welfare, and income distribution by using experimental methods-including participatory experiments and questionnaire experiments. Journal of Economic Literature, 2004

Contents

Why do people violate the transfer principle? Evidence from educational sample surveys (Y. Amiel, F. Cowell, D. Slottje). Efficiency, equity and democracy: Experimental evidence on Okun's Leaky Bucket (S.R. Beckman, J.P. Formby, W.J. Smith). How manipulable are fairness perceptions? The effect of additional alternatives (Y. Bereby-Meyer, B. Grosskopf). An experimental analysis of social mobility comparison (M. Bernasconi, V. Dardanoni). Social welfare, the veil of ignorance and purely individual risk: An empirical examination (K. Bosmans, E. Schokkaert). An experimental study of the POUM hypothesis (D. Checchi, A. Filippin). On the attitude towards inequality (L. Davidovitz, Y. Kroll). Approaching fair behavior: Distributional and reciprocal preferences (A. Kritikos, F. Bolle). Fairness-based altruism and redistribution: An experimental approach (L. Mittone). Inequality and procedural fairness in a money-burning experiment (D. Zizzo).