中文摘要
消费者是否愿意为那些生产过程参与者之间工资不平等程度较低的商品支付更高价格?基于英国和美国人口代表性样本的激励相容行为选择研究,我们发现超过 80% 的受试者对这类不平等降低表现出显著为正的支付意愿。尽管支付意愿随政治倾向和不平等降低幅度而变化,但在整个政治光谱上以及所研究的所有不平等差异情形下,支付意愿均为正。在更直观、信息含量更高的不平等报告形式下,支付意愿更高。我们的发现对政府和企业均具有政策含义。一方面,它们表明普遍提供产品层面的不平等信息有望成为缓解收入不平等的一种工具;另一方面,它们凸显了不平等报告对企业营销策略的潜在相关性。
Abstract
Would consumers be willing to pay more for goods for which there is less inequality in wages across those involved in their production? In incentive-compatible behavioral choice studies on representative samples of the English and U.S. populations, we find significantly positive willingness to pay for such inequality reductions in more than 80% of subjects. Although it varies with political leaning and the extent of the inequality reduction, willingness to pay is positive across the political spectrum and for all studied inequality differences. It is higher for more intuitive and informative inequality-reporting formats. Our findings have policy implications for both governments and firms. On the one hand, they suggest the promise of universal provision of product-level inequality information as a tool for moderating income inequality. On the other hand, they highlight the potential relevance of inequality reporting for firms’ marketing strategies.