(Not) Everyone can be a winner — The role of payoff interdependence for redistribution
通过实验室实验和代表性调查，研究收益相互依赖（零和与非零和环境）如何影响旁观者对工人收入的再分配决策，发现非零和环境下平均再分配减少。
Frequently, one person’s success comes at the expense of others. We contrast such zero-sum environments in which individuals’ payoffs are interdependent to those where payoffs are independent. In a laboratory experiment, we study whether the resulting inequality is perceived differently and how this affects redistribution. Across treatments, we compare a spectator’s redistribution of two workers’ earnings. If workers do not compete in a zero-sum setting, average redistribution decreases. In a representative survey, we replicate this finding and document that individuals who believe in a zero-sum world support higher levels of redistribution and are more likely to consider themselves a member of the Democratic party. • The study contrasts zero-sum environments with those where payoffs are independent. • A lab experiment examines redistribution decisions in a worker-spectator design. • In non-zero-sum settings, the average redistribution of earnings decreases. • A survey representative for the US confirms the laboratory findings.