Cooperation among people who are not related to each other is sustained by the availability of punishment devices which help enforce social norms (Fehr and Gc̃hter, 2002). However, the rationale for costly punishment remains unclear. This paper reports the results of an experiment investigating...

Zwei wesentliche Perspektiven, Arbeitslosigkeit zu untersuchen, sind die der Gerechtigkeit und die der Effizienz. Unverschuldete Arbeitslosigkeit wird als ungerecht empfunden. Zugleich wird häufig argumentiert, dass Arbeitslosigkeit zu gesellschaftlichen Wohlfahrtseinbußen führt, da Arbeit...

This paper argues that an increase in the inequality of wealth prompts a stronger quest for status that in turn fosters the accumulation of wealth. It proposes a measure for an individual’s want of social status. For a given level of a population’s wealth, the corresponding aggregate measure...

We provide an analytical-behavioral explanation for the observed positive relationship between income inequality, as measured by the Gini coefficient, and the incentive to migrate. We show that a higher total relative deprivation of a population leads to a stronger incentive to engage in...

The increase in income inequality in many countries, apparently due to a greater relative increase in upper incomes, has become a public policy concern. This paper shows that the standard Gini index underestimates the rate of increase in inequality because a shift of income towards the top...

Standard income inequality indices can be interpreted as a measure of welfare loss entailed in departures from equality of outcomes, for egalitarian social welfare functions defined on the distribution of outcomes. But such a welfare interpretation has been criticized for a long time on the...

This paper argues that an increase in the inequality of wealth prompts a stronger quest for status that in turn fosters the accumulation of wealth. It proposes a measure for an individual's want of social status. For a given level of a population's wealth, the corresponding aggregate measure of...

The paper is about the political consequences of increasing economic inequality in Western economies. Political theorists have often stressed that democracy is in troubles when its population is not broadly uniform in income and wealth because unequal economic resources can easily translate into...

A free market economy is characterized by an unequal distribution of income, wealth, and opportunities, to the extent that a considerable part of the population does not enjoy the wellbeing which an affluent society can offer. Recent studies have shown that excessive inequality is bad not only...

Tax havens and their relation to inequality has been a subject of recent attention. The release of the Panama Papers has focused attention on offshore schemes in this end. However, changes in the tax code have made many obvious tax evasion activities perfectly legal, as in the case of...