Wie (un-) fair sind Ökonomen?: neue empirische Evidenz zur Marktbewertung und Rationalität

In: Diskussionspapier 2012,3

Abstract

The present document analyzes the differences between economists and non-economists with respect to the valuation of various mechanisms for the allocation of a scarce resource, as well as the isolated influence of rational choice on the fairness judgment of economists. For this purpose, we conducted a survey based on Frey et al. (1993) and Haucap and Just (2010) among more than 600 students of different fields of studies from the University of Münster. As a result, we show that there are different attitudes depending on the field of study, especially with regard to the fairness of the market mechanism. This fact could mainly be explained by self-selection effects of economists. Furthermore, this article shows that indoctrination with rational choice had almost no effect on the judgment of economists. -- Economists vs. Non-economists ; Fairness ; Rational Choice ; Indoctrination ; Self-selection