State dependence in sequential equity judgements

2010

Published version of an article from the journal: Social Choice and Welfare. Also available from the publisher on SpringerLink:http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s00355-010-0482-5 We report the results from a questionnaire-type experiment designed to elicit whether individuals decide in accordance with the equity axiom constituent for Rawls's second principle. The experiment is sequential in nature. Hence it generates panel data. We use recently developed panel data methods for studying the role that state dependence and unobservable individual-specific effects play for the observed equity judgements. The results indicate that a dominant share of our probants initially adhere to Hammond's equity axi…