Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/183443 
Year of Publication: 
2018
Series/Report no.: 
IFN Working Paper No. 1214
Publisher: 
Research Institute of Industrial Economics (IFN), Stockholm
Abstract: 
The paper reports the first experimental study on people's fairness views on extreme income inequalities arising from winner-take-all reward structures. We find that the majority of participants consider extreme income inequality generated in winner-take-all situations as fair, independent of the winning margin. Spectators appear to endorse a "factual merit" fairness argument for no redistribution: the winner deserves all the earnings because these earnings were determined by his or her performance. Our findings shed light on the present political debate on redistribution, by suggesting that people may object less to certain types of extreme income inequality than commonly assumed.
Subjects: 
Winner-take-all reward structures
Fairness
Income inequality
JEL: 
C91
D63
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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