Publication in The Economic Journal
A paper by Alexander W. Cappelen, Ranveig Falch, Zhongjing Huang and Bertil Tungodden titled "Acceptance of Inequality Between Children: Large-Scale Experimental Evidence from China and Norway" is published in The Economic Journal.
A new large-scale study has explored how adults in Shanghai, China, and Norway approach inequality in distributive decisions involving children. The findings reveal that acceptance of inequality between children increases as children get older and varies based on the source of inequality and the cost of redistribution. Notably, adults are less willing to accept inequality among children than among adults, with a major cultural difference between the two societies: adults in Shanghai are twice as likely to accept inequality between children compared to adults in Norway. This acceptance of inequality also correlates with broader attitudes toward child policy, suggesting that cultural and economic factors significantly shape perspectives on fairness in policies affecting children.