Models of Other-Regarding Preferences, Inequality, and Redistribution

Despite the increasing popularity of comparative work on other-regarding preferences, the implications of different models of altruism are not always fully understood. This article analyzes different theoretical approaches to altruism and explores what empirical conclusions we should draw from them,...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Annual review of political science 2018-05, Vol.21 (1), p.441-460
Main Authors: Dimick, Matthew, Rueda, David, Stegmueller, Daniel
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Altruism
Individual differences
industrialized democracies
Inequality
political economy
Popularity
Redistribution
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Summary:Despite the increasing popularity of comparative work on other-regarding preferences, the implications of different models of altruism are not always fully understood. This article analyzes different theoretical approaches to altruism and explores what empirical conclusions we should draw from them, paying particular attention to models of redistribution preferences where inequality explicitly triggers other-regarding motives for redistribution. While the main contribution of this article is to clarify the conclusions of these models, we also illustrate the importance of their distinct implications by analyzing Western European data to compare among them. We draw on individual-level data from the European Social Survey fielded between September 2002 and December 2013.
ISSN:1094-2939
1545-1577
DOI:10.1146/annurev-polisci-091515-030034