When it comes to equality, the rising generation of liberal leaders may talk the talk, but they’re unlikely to walk the walk. At least that’s what a new study recently published in Science suggests. Elite opinion among a younger, left-leaning cohort favors economic efficiency over equality, and they’re more inclined to be selfish than fair-minded when compared to the population at large.
Authored by economists Raymond Fisman, Pamela Jakiela, and Shachar Kariv, along with law professor Daniel Markovits, the research is based on surveys of three cohorts of Yale Law students, one in 2007, another in 2010, and a final one in 2013. The most selective law school in the nation, it’s not only elite; it’s also overwhelmingly liberal. Among students surveyed, self-identified Democrats outnumbered Republicans by a ten to one ratio. Fisman and his colleagues rightly assume that these students represent the new liberal meritocrats, the people likely to occupy important positions in government, exercise influence over public policy, and set the tone for establishment institutions.
The survey was designed to expose two ranges of preferences. The first concerns how individuals rank their self-interest as compared to the interests of others. A fair-minded person sees them as equal. A selfish person is more likely to prefer his own interests. An “intermediate” person (the term the research paper uses) falls in between. The second preference concerns the relative importance of equality as compared to efficiency. A person who favors equality is willing to accept lower efficiency, while those who favor efficiency focus on growing the pie rather than cutting it evenly.
About half the Yale Law students are intermediates, people who give themselves a bit of a preference. The other half tilts strongly in the direction of the selfish. When it comes to equality or efficiency, which is to say, pie growing, the Yale Law students overwhelmingly opt for the latter.
