Social sampling, self-anchoring and redistribution

Open Access
Authors
Publication date 11-2024
Journal Economics Letters
Article number 111942
Volume | Issue number 244
Number of pages 3
Organisations
  • Faculty of Social and Behavioural Sciences (FMG) - Amsterdam Institute for Social Science Research (AISSR)
Abstract 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.
Document type Article
Language English
Published at https://doi.org/10.1016/j.econlet.2024.111942
Other links https://www.scopus.com/pages/publications/85203448466
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