Preferences for fairness


Speaker


Abstract

There are a variety of ways to allocate scarce goods and services. Sometimes they are allocated to people who spend the most resources (e.g., money, time, effort). Or they can also be allocated using lotteries. Which of these systems seems most fair and why? In this talk, I will discuss how people believe that markets and other allocation systems should accurately pick up on people's preferences. This, in turn, shapes people's perceptions about which resources seem like the fairest basis of allocation, as well as people's beliefs about when (or when not to) use markets to allocate goods and services.