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  3. American Economic Review
  4. August 2019
  5. Paying for Kidneys? A Randomized Survey and Choice Experiment

Paying for Kidneys? A Randomized Survey and Choice Experiment

  • Julio J. Elías
  • Nicola Lacetera
  • Mario Macis
American Economic Review
vol. 109, no. 8, August 2019
(pp. 2855-88)
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Abstract

We conducted a randomized survey with 2,666 US residents to study preferences for legalizing payments to kidney donors. We found strong polarization, with many participants supporting or opposing payments regardless of potential transplant gains. However, about 18 percent of respondents would switch to favoring payments for sufficiently large increases in transplants. Preferences for compensation have strong moral foundations; participants especially reject direct payments by patients, which they find would violate principles of fairness. We corroborate the interpretation of our findings with a choice experiment of a costly decision to donate money to a foundation that supports donor compensation.

Citation

Elías, Julio J., Nicola Lacetera, and Mario Macis. 2019. "Paying for Kidneys? A Randomized Survey and Choice Experiment." American Economic Review, 109 (8): 2855-88. DOI: 10.1257/aer.20180568

Additional Materials

JEL Classification

  • D63 Equity, Justice, Inequality, and Other Normative Criteria and Measurement
  • D64 Altruism; Philanthropy; Intergenerational Transfers
  • I11 Analysis of Health Care Markets