The merit primacy effect
Peer reviewed, Journal article
Accepted version
View/ Open
Date
2022Metadata
Show full item recordCollections
- Articles (SAM) [158]
- Publikasjoner fra CRIStin (NHH) [389]
Abstract
A long history in economics going back to Adam Smith has argued that people give primacy to merit – rather than luck – in distributive choices. We provide a theoretical framework formalizing the merit primacy effect, and study it in a novel experiment where third-party spectators redistribute from high-earners to low-earners in situations where both merit and luck determine earnings. We identify a strong and consistent merit primacy effect in the spectator behaviour. The results shed new light on inequality acceptance in society, by showing how just a little bit of merit can make people significantly more inequality accepting. The merit primacy effect