Attitudes Towards Inherited Inequality

Last registered on January 30, 2022

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Pre-Trial

Trial Information

General Information

Title

Attitudes Towards Inherited Inequality

RCT ID

AEARCTR-0007948

Initial registration date

July 12, 2021

Initial registration date is when the trial was registered.

It corresponds to when the registration was submitted to the Registry to be reviewed for publication.

First published

July 12, 2021, 11:54 AM EDT

First published corresponds to when the trial was first made public on the Registry after being reviewed.

Last updated

January 30, 2022, 3:16 PM EST

Last updated is the most recent time when changes to the trial's registration were published.

Locations

Country

Germany

Region

Country

United States of America

Region

Primary Investigator

Name

Timo Freyer

Affiliation

Uni Bonn

Contact Primary Investigator

Other Primary Investigator(s)

PI Name

Laurenz Richard Kuno Günther

PI Affiliation

University of Bonn

Contact Investigator

Additional Trial Information

Status

In development

Start date

2021-12-30

End date

2022-03-31

Keywords

Other

Additional Keywords

Inequality, Redistribution, Fairness

JEL code(s)

D91

Secondary IDs

Prior work

This trial does not extend or rely on any prior RCTs.

Abstract

Inequality is often inherited: individuals are not involved in the process that generates inequality, yet end up with different amounts of resources or opportunities based solely on relations to other people. We conduct an online experiment with a broadly representative sample of the US population to study individuals’ redistributive preferences in situations featuring inherited inequality and how they relate to preferences over real world policies.
Details presented in the pre-analysis plan.

External Link(s)

Registration Citation

Citation

Freyer, Timo and Laurenz Richard Kuno Günther. 2022. "Attitudes Towards Inherited Inequality." AEA RCT Registry. January 30. https://doi.org/10.1257/rct.7948-1.5000000000000004

Sponsors & Partners

Experimental Details

Interventions

Intervention(s)

Intervention Start Date

2021-12-30

Intervention End Date

2022-01-10

Primary Outcomes

Primary Outcomes (end points)

Fraction of inequality in the initial allocation that is equalized

Primary Outcomes (explanation)

Secondary Outcomes

Secondary Outcomes (end points)

Secondary Outcomes (explanation)

Experimental Design

We conduct an online experiment to investigate attitudes towards inherited inequality among a broadly representative sample of the US population. The experiment builds on the impartial spectator paradigm (Cappelen et al., 2013), where impartial spectators can redistribute money between pairs of participants who received their initial payoffs either based on their relative performance on a real effort task or based on a random draw prior to the redistribution stage. We extend this paradigm by allowing active participants to not only generate a payoff for themselves but also for an associated passive counterpart who inherits a payoff. We are particularly interested in how spectators redistribute between passive participants, and how these decisions relate to spectators' preferences over real-world institutions and policies.

References:
Cappelen, Alexander W., et al. "Just luck: An experimental study of risk-taking and fairness." American Economic Review 103.4 (2013): 1398-1413.

Experimental Design Details

Randomization Method

Within-subjects design, any randomization done by a computer in the online survey; details in pre-analysis plan.

Randomization Unit

Individual

Was the treatment clustered?