What's the Monetary Value of Distributive Justice?

Corneo, Giacomo; Fong, Christina M.

doi:10.2139/ssrn.754295

Download This Paper

Open PDF in Browser

Add Paper to My Library

What's the Monetary Value of Distributive Justice?

CESifo Working Paper Series No. 1706

37 Pages Posted: 7 Jul 2005

See all articles by Giacomo Corneo

Giacomo Corneo

Free University of Berlin (FUB); Universität Osnabrück - Faculty of Business Administration - Department of Economics; CESifo (Center for Economic Studies and Ifo Institute for Economic Research); Centre for Economic Policy Research (CEPR); Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA)

Christina M. Fong

Carnegie Mellon University - Department of Social and Decision Sciences

There are 2 versions of this paper

Date Written: April 6, 2006

Abstract

This paper proposes a model that can be implemented to estimate the willingness to pay for distributive justice. A formula is derived that allows one to recover the willingness to pay for distributive justice from the estimated coefficients of a probit regression and fiscal data. Using this formula and data from a 1998 Gallup Social Audit, we find that the monetary value of justice in the United States is about one fifth of GDP. We find no evidence that the value of justice varies across types of people.

Keywords: distributive justice, governmental redistribution, fairness

JEL Classification: D63, H24

Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation

Corneo, Giacomo and Fong, Christina M., What's the Monetary Value of Distributive Justice? (April 6, 2006). CESifo Working Paper Series No. 1706, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=754295 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.754295