Cowell, Frank A. 
ORCID: 0000-0002-3778-2152, Fleurbaey, Marc and Tungodden, Bertil
(2015)
The tyranny puzzle in social preferences: an empirical investigation.
Social Choice and Welfare, 45 (4).
pp. 765-792.
ISSN 0176-1714
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Abstract
When forming their preferences about the distribution of income, rational people may be caught between two opposite forms of “tyranny.” Giving absolute priority to the worst-off imposes a sort of tyranny on the rest of the population, but giving less than absolute priority imposes a reverse form of tyranny where the worst-off may be sacrificed for the sake of small benefits to many well-off individuals. We formally show that this intriguing dilemma is more severe than previously recognised, and we examine how people negotiate such conflicts with a questionnaire-experimental study. Our study shows that both tyrannies are rejected by a majority of the participants, which makes it problematic for them to define consistent distributive preferences on the distribution.
| Item Type: | Article |
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| Official URL: | http://www.springer.com/gb/ |
| Additional Information: | © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2015 |
| Divisions: | Economics STICERD Centre for Analysis of Social Exclusion |
| Subjects: | H Social Sciences > HA Statistics H Social Sciences > HN Social history and conditions. Social problems. Social reform H Social Sciences > HV Social pathology. Social and public welfare. Criminology |
| Date Deposited: | 21 Apr 2015 13:39 |
| Last Modified: | 12 Dec 2024 00:52 |
| URI: | http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/id/eprint/61663 |
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