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Abstract
Supporters of left-wing parties typically put more emphasis on redistributive policies than right-wing voters. I investigate whether this difference in tolerating inequality is amplified by suspicious success — achievements that might arise from cheating. Using a laboratory experiment, I exogenously vary cheating opportunities for stakeholders who work on a real effort task and earn money according to their self-reported performances. An impartial spectator is able to redistribute the earnings between the stakeholders, albeit it is not possible to detect cheating. I find that the opportunity to cheat leads to different views on whether to accept inequality. Left-wing spectators substantially reduce inequality when cheating is possible, while the treatment has no significant effect on choices of right-wing spectators. Since neither differences in beliefs nor differences in norms about cheating can explain this finding, it seems to be driven by a difference in preferences. These results suggest that redistributive preferences will diverge even more once public awareness increases that inequality might be to a certain extent created by cheating.
| Dokumententyp: | Paper |
|---|---|
| Keywords: | Cheating, inequality, fairness, political preferences, redistribution |
| Fakultät: | Volkswirtschaft |
| Themengebiete: | 300 Sozialwissenschaften > 330 Wirtschaft |
| JEL Classification: | C91, D63, D83, H23, H26 |
| URN: | urn:nbn:de:bvb:19-epub-41998-8 |
| Sprache: | Englisch |
| Dokumenten ID: | 41998 |
| Datum der Veröffentlichung auf Open Access LMU: | 11. Jan. 2018, 07:33 |
| Letzte Änderungen: | 04. Nov. 2020, 13:17 |
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