The Relation of Risk Attitudes and Other-Regarding Preferences : A Within-Subjects Analysis

In this paper we provide experimental evidence on the relation of individual risk attitudes and subjects' aversion to favorable inequality. In a within-subjects design we expand Blanco et al.'s (2011) modified dictator game by the risk-elicitation task of Eckel and Grossman (2002). Our data show strong support for a significant negative correlation between risk tolerance and an aversion to favorable inequality. The results are independent of gender, i.e., women and men show a similar correlation in these traits. We present a simple evolutionary model, analyzing the coevolution of risk attitudes and inequality aversion. The model predicts the observed negative relation between the two traits