Ulric B. and Evelyn L. Bray Social Sciences Seminar

Abstract: In settings with uncertainty, tension exists between ex ante and ex post notions of fairness (e.g., equal opportunity versus equal outcomes). In a laboratory experiment, the most common behavioral pattern is for subjects to select the ex ante fair alternative ex ante, and switch to the ex post fair alternative ex post. One potential explanation embraces consequentialism and construes the reversals as manifestations of time inconsistency. Another abandons consequen- tialism, thereby avoiding the implication that revisions imply inconsistency. We test between these explanations by examining the demand for commitment and contingent planning. The hypothesis of time-consistent non-consequentialism receives stronger support.