Social Preferences and Voting on Reform - An Experimental Study

Abstract:     
We experimentally study whether subjects motivated by social preferences deviate enough from material self-interest to overcome the anti-reform bias in voting on reform. We find that the incidence of efficiency-enhancing but inequality-increasing reforms increases because of sociotropic voting among reform losers. When allowing subjects to vote on redistribution after they have voted on reform, however, the median-preferred levels of redistribution are insufficient to break the opposition to reform.

Number of Pages in PDF File: 39

Keywords: political economy of reform, social preferences, voting, redistribution, experiment

JEL Classification: C92, D72, D80

working papers series