Seniority: A Blessing or A Curse? The Effect of Economics Training on the Perception of Distributive Justice

Abstract

This paper examines the impact of the level of economics knowledge on the perception of equity in a Rawlsian sense when distributional issues are of concern to the students at different stages of their education. The purpose is to question the widely held belief that economics teaching has an influence on ethical views of individuals. To examine the relationship between fairness judgments and the level of the economics education, I use a survey-type experimental design, originally developed by Gaertner (1992), in which six different situations are investigated. By carrying out the questionnaire survey among both undergraduate and graduate students of public finance, I find that a clear learning effect does not exist. However, on the other hand, I cannot conclude against the indoctrination hypothesis in favor of the self-selection hypothesis; because the study seeks only to achieve a better understanding of the learning effect. Moreover, my results suggest that personal features, parental background and future income expectations of the students are mostly not strong variables enough to affect the response patterns.

Self-selection or indoctrination in the study of (standard) economics: A systematic literature review

“…Other authors focus on the ‘utility theory’, on the grounds that it consistently advances economic models that describe human beings as rational, utility maximizing agents (Elegido, 2009; Seçilmis, 2014). Finally, some authors do not attribute these behavioural changes to any specific curriculum but believe that they are a consequence of business school studies, in general terms (Collin and Schmidt, 2020; Neubaum et al, 2009; Petersen et al, 2019).…”

“…The first of the limitations is cross-sectional data collection. Notably, testing the indoctrination hypothesis cross-sectionally makes it difficult to establish causality (Bauman and Rose, 2011; Collin and Schmidt, 2020; Hellmich, 2019; Hummel et al, 2018; Neubaum et al, 2009; Petersen and Ford, 2019; Seçilmis, 2014). A second limitation is the lack of replication of the leading studies in other universities (Collin and Schmidt, 2020; Hellmich, 2019; Neubaum et al, 2009; Petersen and Ford, 2019; Segal et al, 2011), in other countries (Delgado et al, 2019), or with students who have a higher level of economics education (MBA or EMBA) (Neubaum et al, 2009).…”

“…First, when testing the indoctrination hypothesis, to determine the causal relationship, a longitudinal design should be used first and foremost to overcome the limitations arising from cross-sectional data collection (Collin and Schmidt, 2020; Dzionek-Kozlowska and Rehman, 2017; Hummel et al, 2018; Krick et al, 2016; Neubaum et al, 2009; Seçilmis, 2014).…”