Not Playing Favorites: Parents and the Value of Equal Opportunity†
通过两个实验，研究父母在教育投资中如何权衡机会均等与收益最大化，发现父母愿意放弃15%至45%的收益来确保孩子间的机会均等。
We conduct two experiments to identify the value parents place on equality of opportunity when investing in children. The experiments exogenously vary short-run returns to educational investments to identify the weight placed on equalizing “opportunity” (child-level investment) relative to maximizing “returns” (total household earnings) or to equalizing “outcomes” (child-level expected earnings). While parents in both experiments place some weight on maximizing returns, they also display a strong preference for equalizing opportunities and are willing to forgo 15–45 percent of their earnings to do so. Parents in higher-income countries also care about equalizing outcomes, while parents in lower-income countries do not.