Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: http://hdl.handle.net/10419/83640
Year of Publication: 
2013
Series/Report no.: 
Economics Discussion Papers No. 2013-53
Publisher: 
Kiel Institute for the World Economy (IfW), Kiel
Abstract: 
In mainstream economics individuals are supposed to be driven only by their self-interest. By contrast, surveys clearly show that people do care about fairness in their demand for redistribution. In this article, in the spirit of the new synthesis in moral psychology (Haidt, 2007: The new synthesis in moral psychology) the author proposes to modelize the voting behavior over redistribution as the interaction between (a) an automatic cognitive process which quickly generates intuitions on the fair level of redistribution, (b) a rational self-oriented reasoning which controls the feeling of guilt associated with fair intuitions. In addition, considering that guilt aversion depends on the cultural context, the author shows that the model exhibits a multiplicity of history-dependent steady states which may account for the huge difference of redistribution observed between Europe and the United States.
Subjects: 
redistribution
voting behavior
fairness
behavioral economics
JEL: 
D03
D64
D72
H53
Creative Commons License: 
cc-by Logo
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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