Stated and revealed inequality aversion in three subject pools

Abstract

This paper reports data from three subject pools ( n = 717 subjects) using techniques based on those of Loewenstein et al. (J Personal Soc Psychol 57:426–441, 1989) and Blanco et al. (Games Econ Behav 72:321–338, 2011) to obtain parameters, respectively, of stated and revealed inequality aversion. We provide a replication opportunity for those papers, with two innovations: (1) a design which allows stated and revealed preferences to be compared at the individual level; (2) assessment of robustness of findings across subjects from a UK university, a Turkish university and Amazon Mechanical Turk. Our findings on stated aversion to inequality are qualitatively similar to those of Loewenstein et al. in each of our subject pools, whereas there are notable differences between some of our findings on revealed preference and those of Blanco et al. We find that revealed advantageous inequality aversion is often stronger than revealed dis-advantageous inequality aversion. In most subject pools, we find some (weak) correlation between corresponding parameters of stated and revealed inequality aversion.