Fairness in a Society of Unequal Opportunities

Alexander Cappelen, Yiming Liu (), Hedda Nielsen () and Bertil Tungodden
Additional contact information
Yiming Liu: Humboldt University of Berlin, Postal: Humboldt University of Berlin, Unter den Linden 6, 10117 Berlin, Germany, https://www.yimingliuecon.com/
Hedda Nielsen: Berlin School of Economics, Postal: Humboldt University of Berlin, Unter den Linden 6, 10117 Berlin, Germany, https://sites.google.com/view/heddanielsen

No 17/2024, Discussion Paper Series in Economics from Norwegian School of Economics, Department of Economics

Abstract: Modern societies are characterized by widespread disparities in opportunities, creating income inequality between people whose choices were shaped by different circumstances. This paper investigates how people handle income inequality arising from unequal opportunities. We report from a largescale experimental study involving general populations in the United States and Scandinavia, where third-party spectators make consequential redistribution decisions. Our findings provide strong evidence that a large majority of people are willing to accept inequality caused by unequal opportunities, which contrasts with their view on inequality caused by outcome luck. Two distinct forces drive greater acceptance of inequality under unequal opportunities: the tendency to mistakenly attribute the impact of unequal opportunities to differences in productivity, and the moral relevance attached to performance differences caused by unequal opportunities. We further demonstrate a clear societal and political divide in responses to unequal opportunities, with Americans and right-wing voters exhibiting a greater acceptance of the resulting inequality, reflecting both differences in attribution bias and fairness views in these populations.

Keywords: Unequal opportunities; Inequality acceptance; Attribution bias; Fairness views (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: J01 J17 J18 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 137 pages
Date: 2024-10-21
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-exp and nep-lab
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Working Paper: Fairness in a Society of Unequal Opportunities (2024)
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