Social sampling, self-anchoring and redistribution
研究发现，当人们用自己收入来估计社会平均收入时，即使抽样无偏，也会产生系统性误判，导致多数人低估社会平均收入，进而降低实际再分配水平。
We examine the effect that agents anchor their perceptions of societal mean incomes on their own incomes. As we show analytically and verify by means of numerical simulation, this self-anchoring implies that even if the sampling of agents is unbiased and fully random, including their own income into their estimate of the average can lead to substantial misperceptions, especially, if the sampling ratio is small. Within a Meltzer–Richard framework, we then demonstrate that self-anchoring leads to a decrease in implemented redistribution. • With self-anchoring, agents form beliefs about aggregates based on their own situation. • For incomes, this leads to underestimating the societal mean income for the majority. • In a Meltzer-Richard framework, implemented redistribution thus decreases.