Local Inequality and Own Rank Preferences

Principal Investigator(s):  View help for Principal Investigator(s) Christopher Brown, Purdue University; Timothy Cason, Purdue University

Version:  View help for Version V2

Name File Type Size Last Modified
  Raw_Data_Files 09/09/2024 02:57:PM
Brown_Cason_data_analysis.do text/plain 56.2 KB 09/09/2024 10:58:AM
Brown_Cason_data_management.do text/plain 16 KB 09/08/2024 06:47:PM
Experiment_Instructions.pdf application/pdf 247 KB 09/11/2024 06:34:AM
inequality_rank_preferences.otreezip application/gzip 122.9 KB 09/09/2024 10:59:AM
rank_preferences_data.dta application/x-stata-dta 4.1 MB 08/05/2024 10:32:PM
readme.txt text/plain 4.3 KB 09/09/2024 11:01:AM

Project Citation: 

Brown, Christopher, and Cason, Timothy. Local Inequality and Own Rank Preferences. Ann Arbor, MI: Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research [distributor], 2024-09-11. https://doi.org/10.3886/E209028V2

Project Description

Summary:  View help for Summary We report a lab experiment to study subjects’ preferences over their ordinal rank in an earnings distribution. Following an assignment of unequal earnings, subjects can select a monetary transfer from exactly one individual to another, not including themselves. This can potentially change their own position in the distribution, as well as influence overall inequality. The experiment varies whether the initial earnings assignment is random or is affected by preliminary competition. It also varies the reference group from a complete to a partial network. A majority of observed transfers reduce inequality by moving earnings from those with the highest rank to the lowest rank in the distribution. Rank-improving transfers are substantially more common for preliminary competition losers than winners. Transfers to individuals outside of the reference group are not uncommon, and they usually target as the source the individuals high in the income distribution. While generally weak overall, own rank preferences appear to be more common among men than women.

Scope of Project

Subject Terms:  View help for Subject Terms Inequality aversion; relative earnings; distributive preferences; social preferences
Geographic Coverage:  View help for Geographic Coverage United States
Collection Date(s):  View help for Collection Date(s) 4/1/2022 – 2/22/2023


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Published Versions

V2 [2024-09-11]

V1 [2024-09-09]

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