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Cahier du LARJE n° 2019-1 Profit vs morality

Cahier n° n° 2019-1 Profit vs morality
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Mathieu Bunel

PROFIT VS MORALITY
RESULTS FROM A SURVEY EXPERIMENT ON DISCRIMINATION

Using an original survey-experimental protocol, we study the normative acceptability of the trade-off between immoral profit (discrimination) and costly morality (non-discrimination). We test the causal influence of three factors: i) the origin of discrimination, ii) the steepness of the morality/profit trade-off and iii) anti- discriminatory moral injunctions. Contrasting with past experimental and attitudinal studies, we find that a significant minority of respondents believe that labor market discrimination is acceptable when morality results in profit loss. We also find that the three tested factors have significant effects on normative opinions. Respondents are more likely to choose profit over morality when discrimination is taste-based than when it is caused by imperfect information. Discrimination’s acceptability rises with the cost of non discrimination. Anti- discriminatory moral injunctions sharply reduces the acceptability of profitable discrimination.

MathieuBUNEL, LARJE (EA 3329) Université de la Nouvelle-Calédonie Campus de Nouville BP R4 98851 Nouméa Cedex, France mathieu.Bunel@unc.nc

ElisabethTOVAR,ECONOMIX (EA 3329) Université Paris-Nanterre 200 avenue de la République, 92001 Cedex Nanterre elisabeth.tovar@parisnanterre.fr

Vous pouvez le retrouver ici : LARJE2019_1