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Social Position and Distributive Justice: Experimental Evidence
Author(s) -
Swope Kurtis,
Cadigan John,
Schmitt Pamela,
Shupp Robert
Publication year - 2008
Publication title -
southern economic journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.762
H-Index - 58
eISSN - 2325-8012
pISSN - 0038-4038
DOI - 10.1002/j.2325-8012.2008.tb00865.x
Subject(s) - distributive justice , distributive property , veil of ignorance , position (finance) , economics , social psychology , dictator , variance (accounting) , microeconomics , psychology , economic justice , political science , law , mathematics , accounting , finance , politics , pure mathematics
Using a simple, double‐blind dictator experiment, we examine the extent to which subjects' choices of distributive shares are influenced by unearned social position. We measure social position by the initial distributive shares (resources) and the subjects' ability to determine the final distributive shares (power). We find that subjects' decisions are consistent with Rawls' (1971) hypothesis that individuals expect a greater share when in a position with more power and initial resources. Finally, we test if subjects' choices under a laboratory veil of ignorance are consistent with Rawls' concept of distributive justice. “Veiled” individuals exhibit preferences that are less risk‐averse and have greater variance than Rawls hypothesized.