Ethical altruism and redistribution: an experimental approach

The focus of this paper is on altruism and coordination among agents with different income levels. A special form of altruism (ethical altruism) is investigated by means of experiments. The definition of altruism here used takes the hint by the A. Sen’s concept of obligation, i.e. behaviours that produce advantage to someone whose welfare is not important at all for the agent’s wellbeing. In this sense this paper investigates on altruism without reciprocity. A second hypothesis here investigated is that the degree of extent of the ethical altruism is influenced by gender and by income differences within the population.