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Are people willing to pay for reduced inequality?| old_uid | 20047 |
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| title | Are people willing to pay for reduced inequality? |
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| start_date | 2022/02/11 |
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| schedule | 11h15-12h30 |
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| online | no |
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| details | Co-authors: Thomas Lloyd |
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| summary | Income inequality is a central issue in current public debate and policy. Recent theoretical results have identified the potential of providing consumers with information about the income inequality across those involved in the production of each good at the point of purchase as a tool for mitigating overall inequality. However, its impact depends crucially on whether people are willing to pay more for goods whose production involves less income inequality. Here we investigate this largely unexplored empirical question through incentive-compatible behavioural choice studies on representative samples of the English and US populations. We find that over 80% of subjects are willing to pay significantly more for goods associated with less extreme inequality. How much more people are willing to pay varies with political leaning and with the extent of the inequality reduction, but is positive across the political spectrum and for all studied inequality differences. Moreover, it is typically higher when inequality is reported in more intuitive and informative formats. Our results suggest the promise of product-level inequality information provision as a tool for moderating income inequality, hinting at impacts even in markets where all goods involve relatively high inequality levels, as well as potential buy-in across the political spectrum. |
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| responsibles | Le Lec, Laslier |
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