The Tyranny Puzzle in Welfare Economics: An empirical investigation

We address a puzzle in welfare economics - the possibility that rational people maybe simultaneously against two apparently conflicting forms of “tyranny”. In fact thetwo types of tyranny can be reconciled but at the possible cost of conflict with otherstandard welfare principles. We examine whether such conflicts do arise using aquestionnaire-experimental study. Our study shows that both tyrannies are rejectedby a majority of the participants, and in many cases also pose a practical problem inmoral reasoning.[...]