Are Elites Meritocratic and Efficiency-Seeking? Evidence from MBA Students

Autores
Preuss, Marcel; Reyes, Germán J.; Somerville, Jason; Wu, Joy
Año de publicación
2025
Idioma
inglés
Tipo de recurso
documento de trabajo
Estado
versión enviada
Descripción
Elites disproportionately influence policymaking, yet little is known about their fairness and efficiency preferences—key determinants of support for redistributive policies. We investigate these preferences in an incentivized lab experiment with a group of future elites—Ivy League MBA students. We find that MBA students implement substantially more unequal earnings distributions than the average American, regardless of whether inequality stems from luck or merit. Their redistributive choices are also highly responsive to efficiency costs, with an elasticity an order of magnitude larger than that found in representative U.S. samples. Analyzing fairness ideals, we find that MBA students are less likely to be strict meritocrats than the broader population. These findings provide novel insights into how elites’ redistributive preferences may shape high levels of inequality in the U.S.
Centro de Estudios Distributivos, Laborales y Sociales
Materia
Ciencias Económicas
Elites
Redistribution
Inequality
Fairness
Efficiency
Nivel de accesibilidad
acceso abierto
Condiciones de uso
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
Repositorio
SEDICI (UNLP)
Institución
Universidad Nacional de La Plata
OAI Identificador
oai:sedici.unlp.edu.ar:10915/184140
Acceder
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repository_id_str 1329
network_name_str SEDICI (UNLP)
spelling Are Elites Meritocratic and Efficiency-Seeking? Evidence from MBA StudentsPreuss, MarcelReyes, Germán J.Somerville, JasonWu, JoyCiencias EconómicasElitesRedistributionInequalityFairnessEfficiencyElites disproportionately influence policymaking, yet little is known about their fairness and efficiency preferences—key determinants of support for redistributive policies. We investigate these preferences in an incentivized lab experiment with a group of future elites—Ivy League MBA students. We find that MBA students implement substantially more unequal earnings distributions than the average American, regardless of whether inequality stems from luck or merit. Their redistributive choices are also highly responsive to efficiency costs, with an elasticity an order of magnitude larger than that found in representative U.S. samples. Analyzing fairness ideals, we find that MBA students are less likely to be strict meritocrats than the broader population. These findings provide novel insights into how elites’ redistributive preferences may shape high levels of inequality in the U.S.Centro de Estudios Distributivos, Laborales y Sociales2025-09info:eu-repo/semantics/workingPaperinfo:eu-repo/semantics/submittedVersionDocumento de trabajohttp://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_8042info:ar-repo/semantics/documentoDeTrabajoapplication/pdfhttp://sedici.unlp.edu.ar/handle/10915/184140enginfo:eu-repo/semantics/altIdentifier/url/https://www.cedlas.econo.unlp.edu.ar/wp/no-356/info:eu-repo/semantics/altIdentifier/issn/1853-0168info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccesshttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)reponame:SEDICI (UNLP)instname:Universidad Nacional de La Platainstacron:UNLP2025-09-29T11:50:28Zoai:sedici.unlp.edu.ar:10915/184140Institucionalhttp://sedici.unlp.edu.ar/Universidad públicaNo correspondehttp://sedici.unlp.edu.ar/oai/snrdalira@sedici.unlp.edu.arArgentinaNo correspondeNo correspondeNo correspondeopendoar:13292025-09-29 11:50:28.407SEDICI (UNLP) - Universidad Nacional de La Platafalse
dc.title.none.fl_str_mv Are Elites Meritocratic and Efficiency-Seeking? Evidence from MBA Students
title Are Elites Meritocratic and Efficiency-Seeking? Evidence from MBA Students
spellingShingle Are Elites Meritocratic and Efficiency-Seeking? Evidence from MBA Students
Preuss, Marcel
Ciencias Económicas
Elites
Redistribution
Inequality
Fairness
Efficiency
title_short Are Elites Meritocratic and Efficiency-Seeking? Evidence from MBA Students
title_full Are Elites Meritocratic and Efficiency-Seeking? Evidence from MBA Students
title_fullStr Are Elites Meritocratic and Efficiency-Seeking? Evidence from MBA Students
title_full_unstemmed Are Elites Meritocratic and Efficiency-Seeking? Evidence from MBA Students
title_sort Are Elites Meritocratic and Efficiency-Seeking? Evidence from MBA Students
dc.creator.none.fl_str_mv Preuss, Marcel
Reyes, Germán J.
Somerville, Jason
Wu, Joy
author Preuss, Marcel
author_facet Preuss, Marcel
Reyes, Germán J.
Somerville, Jason
Wu, Joy
author_role author
author2 Reyes, Germán J.
Somerville, Jason
Wu, Joy
author2_role author
author
author
dc.subject.none.fl_str_mv Ciencias Económicas
Elites
Redistribution
Inequality
Fairness
Efficiency
topic Ciencias Económicas
Elites
Redistribution
Inequality
Fairness
Efficiency
dc.description.none.fl_txt_mv Elites disproportionately influence policymaking, yet little is known about their fairness and efficiency preferences—key determinants of support for redistributive policies. We investigate these preferences in an incentivized lab experiment with a group of future elites—Ivy League MBA students. We find that MBA students implement substantially more unequal earnings distributions than the average American, regardless of whether inequality stems from luck or merit. Their redistributive choices are also highly responsive to efficiency costs, with an elasticity an order of magnitude larger than that found in representative U.S. samples. Analyzing fairness ideals, we find that MBA students are less likely to be strict meritocrats than the broader population. These findings provide novel insights into how elites’ redistributive preferences may shape high levels of inequality in the U.S.
Centro de Estudios Distributivos, Laborales y Sociales
description Elites disproportionately influence policymaking, yet little is known about their fairness and efficiency preferences—key determinants of support for redistributive policies. We investigate these preferences in an incentivized lab experiment with a group of future elites—Ivy League MBA students. We find that MBA students implement substantially more unequal earnings distributions than the average American, regardless of whether inequality stems from luck or merit. Their redistributive choices are also highly responsive to efficiency costs, with an elasticity an order of magnitude larger than that found in representative U.S. samples. Analyzing fairness ideals, we find that MBA students are less likely to be strict meritocrats than the broader population. These findings provide novel insights into how elites’ redistributive preferences may shape high levels of inequality in the U.S.
publishDate 2025
dc.date.none.fl_str_mv 2025-09
dc.type.none.fl_str_mv info:eu-repo/semantics/workingPaper
info:eu-repo/semantics/submittedVersion
Documento de trabajo
http://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_8042
info:ar-repo/semantics/documentoDeTrabajo
format workingPaper
status_str submittedVersion
dc.identifier.none.fl_str_mv http://sedici.unlp.edu.ar/handle/10915/184140
url http://sedici.unlp.edu.ar/handle/10915/184140
dc.language.none.fl_str_mv eng
language eng
dc.relation.none.fl_str_mv info:eu-repo/semantics/altIdentifier/url/https://www.cedlas.econo.unlp.edu.ar/wp/no-356/
info:eu-repo/semantics/altIdentifier/issn/1853-0168
dc.rights.none.fl_str_mv info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)
eu_rights_str_mv openAccess
rights_invalid_str_mv http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)
dc.format.none.fl_str_mv application/pdf
dc.source.none.fl_str_mv reponame:SEDICI (UNLP)
instname:Universidad Nacional de La Plata
instacron:UNLP
reponame_str SEDICI (UNLP)
collection SEDICI (UNLP)
instname_str Universidad Nacional de La Plata
instacron_str UNLP
institution UNLP
repository.name.fl_str_mv SEDICI (UNLP) - Universidad Nacional de La Plata
repository.mail.fl_str_mv alira@sedici.unlp.edu.ar
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