The Petersburg Paradox and its solutions are formulated in a uniform arrangement centered around d'Alembert's ratio test. All its aspects are captured using three mappings, a mapping from the natural numbers to the space of the winnings, a utility function defined on the space of the winnings,...

In 1713 Nicolas Bernoulli sent to de Montmort several mathematical problems, the fifth of which was at odds with the then prevailing belief that the advantage of games of hazard follows from their expected value. In spite of the infinite expected value of this game, no gambler would venture a...

This paper uses the data gained from an income categorization experiment for five shapes of income distributions to investigate background context effects, relative deprivation, range-frequency theory to explain back- ground context effects, individual income satisfaction versus aggregate well-...

Using an experiment with material incentives, this paper investigates the violation of composite dominance relationships, viz. absolute Pareto dominance, Pareto rank dominance, transfer dominance, Lorenz dominance, and generalized Lorenz dominance. Moreover, we test tail independence. The...

Using an experiment with material incentives, this paper investigates the violation of Lorenz relations in the case of dominant and single?crossing Lorenz curves. Our experimental design consists of two treatments: an income distribution treatment and a lottery treatment. Both treatments were...

Leaky?bucket transactions can be regarded as a generalization of the transfer principle allowing for transaction costs. In its most rudimentary form, leaky?bucket transactions trace out the maximum leakage of transaction costs such that a transfer still pays at the margin. Yet ?to pay at the...

This paper provides a comparative experimental study of risky prospects (lotteries) and income distributions. The experimental design consisted of multi?outcome lotteries and n?dimensional income distributions arranged in the shapes of ten distributions which were judged in terms of ratings and...

Deutschland leidet unter einer zu hohen marginalen Abgabenbelastung. Investitionen und Arbeitsplätze wandern in Niedrigsteuerländer und in Länder mit niedrigen Arbeitskosten [das heißt, in Länder mit niedrigen Löhnen und/oder niedrigen lohnbezogenen Abgaben] ab. Im Inland selbst führt die...

Amiel et al. (1999) use the Atkinson and the Gini social welfare functions to measure income inequality attitudes based on data from leaky-bucket experiments. Yet the experimental de-sign does not allow their subjects to perceive income inequality according to the Gini or the Atkinson inequality...

An income inequality measure satisfies the Pigou-Dalton transfer principle if progressive transfers decrease income inequality. When transfers cause transaction costs, one can trace out the maximum leakage such that the transfer pays at the margin. An income inequality measure is leaky-bucket...