Date/Time Date(s) - 03/09/202511:30 am - 12:30 pm
Ananish Chaudhuri, Professor of experimental economics at the University of Auckland, will present to our economic graduate students and faculty on Wednesday, September 3 in KTH 334!
Ananish, as well as a Professor, served as the Chair of the Department of Economics from 2013 to 2019 at the University of Auckland. He has written a number of critically acclaimed books, and journal articles. He is currently the Senior Editor of Oxford Open Economics. He will present “Luck or merit? Inequality and punishment in a public goods game.”
Abstract
We provide causal evidence that the less well-off are more accepting of inequality arising from merit rather than luck using a public goods experiment with heterogeneous endowments. In one treatment, participants can vote to implement a costly centralised mechanism that punishes free riding. Behaviour in this treatment is compared to a control treatment where no such sanctioning in available. The less well-off benefit monetarily and can reduce inequalities in earnings by implementing deterrent punishments for free riding but do so only when endowment differences are based on luck rather than merit, suggesting greater tolerance for merit-based inequality.
View Ananish’s professional website.