The Acceptability of Accountability

This paper reports on an experimental test of the acceptability of the Principle of Accountability. This is a principle of social justice, and states, “individuals should be rewarded for factors under their control […], but not for factors outside their control” (Cappelen and Tungodden (2009)). We s...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inConstitutional political economy Vol. 32; no. 4; pp. 476 - 501
Main Authors Bone, John, Crosetto, Paolo, Hey, John, Pasca, Carmen
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published New York Springer US 01.12.2021
Springer Nature B.V
Springer Verlag
Subjects
Accountability
Compensation
Constitutional Law
Economic Theory/Quantitative Economics/Mathematical Methods
Economics and Finance
Humanities and Social Sciences
Original Paper
Political Science
Political Science and International Relations
Political Science and International Studies
Responsibility
Rewards
Social justice
D63
Choice
D31
Luck
Compensation
C91
Responsibility
Chance
The principle of accountability
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Summary:This paper reports on an experimental test of the acceptability of the Principle of Accountability. This is a principle of social justice, and states, “individuals should be rewarded for factors under their control […], but not for factors outside their control” (Cappelen and Tungodden (2009)). We specifically ask for acceptability of the principle underlying it, rather than for particular rewards in particular instances. We carry out the test with both an Internal and an External Dictator, conducting a laboratory experiment with a total of 240 subjects. We find that there is broad, but not overwhelming support for the Principle. When the Principle is internally inconsistent no clear preference emerges, which is not surprising.
Bibliography:ObjectType-Article-1
SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1
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ISSN:1043-4062
1572-9966
DOI:10.1007/s10602-021-09331-z