The geometry of distributional preferences and a non-parametric identification approach: The Equality Equivalence Test

2015/02/18 by Rudolf Kerschbamer · 125 citations
Decision Sciences · Economics, Econometrics and Finance · Mathematics · Social Sciences · #Archetype #Computer science #Context (archaeology) #Core (optical fiber) #Decision-Making and Behavioral Economics #Discrete mathematics #Econometrics #Economic and Environmental Valuation #Equivalence (formal languages) #Experimental Behavioral Economics Studies #Identification (biology) #Mathematical economics #Mathematics #Parametric model #Parametric statistics #Preference #Set (abstract data type) #Statistics

paper · doi:10.1016/j.euroecorev.2015.01.008

published in European Economic Review 76, 85-103 (Elsevier BV)

openalex publication_date 2015/02/18 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/02

Abstract

This paper proposes a geometric delineation of distributional preference types and a non-parametric approach for their identification in a two-person context. It starts with a small set of assumptions on preferences and shows that this set (i) naturally results in a taxonomy of distributional archetypes that nests all empirically relevant types considered in previous work; and (ii) gives rise to a clean experimental identification procedure – the Equality Equivalence Test – that discriminates between archetypes according to core features of preferences rather than properties of specific modeling variants. As a by-product the test yields a two-dimensional index of preference intensity.

Citations

• Risk Aversion and Incentive Effects
• Revealed Altruism

Cited by

• Estimating social preferences using stated satisfaction: Novel support for inequity aversion
• War, social preferences, and anti-outgroup behavior: Experimental evidence from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine
• Adding Realism to Theories of Taxpayer Compliance
• Offers beyond the negotiating dyad: Including the excluded in a network exchange experiment
• WHAT MOTIVATES TAX COMPLIANCE?
• Economic Preferences and Personality Traits Among Finance Professionals and the General Population
• Social interaction effects: The impact of distributional preferences on risky choices. [europepmc]
• The impact of need on distributive decisions: Experimental evidence on anchor effects of exogenous thresholds in the laboratory. [europepmc]
• Reducing variance or helping the poorest? A mouse tracking approach to investigate cognitive bases of inequality aversion in resource allocation. [europepmc]
• Psychopathy and Economic Behavior Among Prison Inmates: An Experiment. [europepmc]
• Effects of Inequality on Trust and Reciprocity: An Experiment With Real Effort. [europepmc]
• Protocol of the Healthy Brain Study: An accessible resource for understanding the human brain and how it dynamically and individually operates in its bio-social context. [europepmc]
• Moral awareness polarizes people's fairness judgments. [europepmc]

Related

• A Non-Parametric Approach to Heterogeneity Analysis
• A class of dissimilarity semimetrics for preference relations
• Identifying Restrictions on the Random Utility Model
• Preference Identification
• Preference Models assume Proportional Hazards of Utilities