因不公而恶不均:责任视角下对不平等厌恶的实证社会选择分析

Why Injustice will Result in Aversion about Inequality:An Analysis of Empirical Social Choice on Inequality Aversion in the Perspective of Accountability

不平等厌恶会影响人民福祉和国家长治久安,而收入差距形成原因的不同——个人需要负责的原因和个人无须负责的原因——会改变中立观察者的不平等厌恶程度。基于实证社会选择的概念框架,我们通过问卷准实验发现:在对待不平等的态度上,存在源于框架效应和人口特征的情景依赖。与责任原则的预测一致,如果当前收入差距源于"出身",不平等厌恶和再分配意愿最强;如果收入分配格局的形成原因是"努力",不平等厌恶和再分配意愿最弱。此外,由于受到责任原则的影响,部分被试者会做出某种"异象"性质的选择,从而避免低收入者不劳而获。并且,责任偏好与不平等厌恶一道,会影响人们在增加税收和削减公共服务之间的抉择。

Inequality aversion has influence on people’s well-being and social stability,then different origins of income gap(accountability vs.non-accountability by themselves)can change the impartial spectators’level of inequality aversion.In the perspective of empirical social choice,we design a questionnaire quasi-experiment and find some results as follows.At the beginning,there is"context dependence"in the attitude about inequality,it consists of framework effect and demographic characteristics.Secondly,according to the prediction of accountability principle,if income gap results from"birth",inequality aversion and desire of redistribution are strongest,and when income gap is the result of"effort",inequality aversion and desire of redistribution are weakest.Thirdly,by the effects of accountability principle,a part of subjects may represent an kind of"anomaly",this abnormal choice can help subjects to avoid lazy people get too much from redistribution.Besides,responsibility preference and inequality aversion can both affect the choice between"more taxes"and"less public services".