Valero Vanessa
Loughborough University, Loughborough, UK.
CeDEx, Nottingham, UK.
Exp Econ. 2022;25(3):876-901. doi: 10.1007/s10683-021-09733-8. Epub 2021 Sep 27.
Previous literature demonstrates that beliefs about the determinants of income inequality play a major role in individual support for income redistribution. This study investigates how people form beliefs regarding the extent to which work versus luck determines income inequality. Specifically, I examine whether people form self-serving beliefs to justify supporting personally advantageous redistributive policies. I use a laboratory experiment where I directly measure beliefs and manipulate the incentives to engage in self-deception. I first replicate earlier results demonstrating that (1) people attribute income inequality to work when they receive a high income and to luck when they receive a low income and (2) their beliefs about the source of income inequality influence their preferences over redistributive policies. However, I do not find that people's beliefs about the causes of income inequality are further influenced by self-serving motivations based on a desire to justify favorable redistributive policies. I conclude that, in my experiment, self-serving beliefs about the causes of income inequality are driven primarily by overconfidence and self-image concerns and not to justify favorable redistributive policies.
The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s10683-021-09733-8.
以往文献表明，对收入不平等决定因素的看法在个人对收入再分配的支持中起主要作用。本研究调查人们如何形成关于工作与运气在多大程度上决定收入不平等的看法。具体而言，我研究人们是否形成自利性信念，以证明支持对个人有利的再分配政策是合理的。我采用实验室实验，直接测量信念并操纵进行自我欺骗的动机。我首先复制了早期结果，表明：（1）人们在获得高收入时将收入不平等归因于工作，而在获得低收入时归因于运气；（2）他们对收入不平等来源的信念影响他们对再分配政策的偏好。然而，我没有发现人们对收入不平等原因的信念会因出于证明有利再分配政策合理的愿望而产生的自利动机而进一步受到影响。我得出结论，在我的实验中，关于收入不平等原因的自利性信念主要由过度自信和自我形象关注驱动，而非为了证明有利再分配政策合理。
在线版本包含可在10.1007/s10683-021-09733-8获取的补充材料。
