Doctoral Dissertation Research in Political Science: How Americans Distribute Income Behind the Veil of Ignorance

摘要从托克维尔对19世纪初美国民主的观察，到20世纪50年代路易斯·哈茨对自由主义的经典研究，再到后来詹妮弗·霍克希尔德和许多其他政治科学家和经济学家的研究，机会平等和结果平等的问题都得到了研究。为什么美国人会接受、容忍或默许日益严重的经济不平等，这是我研究的核心问题。为了寻找这个问题的答案，我通过实证检验约翰·罗尔斯（John Rawls）的分配正义理论，研究了美国人对不平等的态度。在“隐藏在无知之幕背后”（例如，不知道结果会是什么以及他们个人将如何受到影响）的实验中，小团体选择如何在成员之间分配收入。早期的研究结果表明，当被置于一个客观的位置，即“面纱后面”时，来自美国各地不同群体的人往往是平等主义者。他们通常倾向于在群体内平等地分配收入，并且愿意为这一结果付出大量的代价，即使在面临公平-效率权衡的情况下，收入总量会随着收入分配趋于平等而减少。然而，当面纱消失时，偏好发生了变化：面纱背后的平等主义参与者在不再处于客观地位时，往往会最大化个人收入。因此，利用罗尔斯的思想实验，就有可能衡量人们在面纱背后的行为在多大程度上是平等主义或风险厌恶的函数，以及他们对公平效率权衡的敏感程度。调查工具进一步使我能够估计这些实验中个体和群体差异的影响。该研究的更广泛影响是基于其包容性、合作维度和影响政策制定的潜力。实验的参与者将包括几所大学的学生以及学术界以外的个人。样本设计包括来自代表性不足的群体的参与者，这将为更广泛的人提供一个见证和为科学研究做出贡献的机会。该研究还跨越了学科之间的传统界限，将实验经济学的方法引入政治学论文。这项研究的结果将通过在大学的演讲广泛传播。最后，我希望将研究结果发表在一本政治学杂志上，并使研究结果对政策制定者在处理美国持续存在的经济和社会不平等问题时有用。

Primary Investigators: Michael Brown and Paul ViottiTitle: How Americans Distribute Income Behind the Veil of Ignorance 0720430AbstractQuestions of equality of opportunity and outcomes have been examined from Alexis de Tocqueville's observations of democracy in early 19th-century America to the now classic study of liberalism in the 1950s by Louis Hartz to the subsequent work of Jennifer Hochschild and many other political scientists and economists. Why Americans accept, tolerate or acquiesce in the presence of growing economic inequality is my central research question. In a search for an answer to this query, I examine American attitudes toward inequality by empirically testing John Rawls' theory of distributive justice. Small groups choose how to distribute income among members in experiments conducted "behind the veil of ignorance" (e.g., not knowing what the outcome will be and how they individually will be affected). Early results suggest that when placed in an objective position, i.e., "behind the veil," people from different groups around the United States tend to be egalitarians. They generally prefer to distribute income equally within the group and are willing to pay substantially for this outcome even when confronted with an equity-efficiency tradeoff in which the total amount of income diminishes as the distribution of income tends toward equality. When the veil disappears, however, preferences shift: participants who are egalitarian behind the veil tend to maximize individual income when they are no longer in an objective position. Thus, using Rawls' thought experiment, it is possible to gauge the extent to which people's behavior behind the veil is a function of egalitarianism or risk aversion and how sensitive they are to an equity-efficiency tradeoff. A survey instrument further enables me to estimate the effects of individual and group differences in these experiments. The broader impacts of the study are based on its inclusiveness, its collaborative dimensions, and its potential to influence policymaking. Participants in the experiments will include students at several universities as well as individuals from outside of academe. The sample design includes participants from underrepresented groups, which will provide an opportunity for a wide range of people to witness and to contribute to scientific research. The research also crosses traditional boundaries between disciplines by bringing methods from experimental economics into a political science dissertation. The results of the study will be disseminated widely through presentations at universities. Finally, I hope to publish the results in a political science journal and make the findings useful to policy-makers dealing with the ongoing problems of economic and social inequality in the United States.