Z:gnu-www-ja-frank--77c7f9-One difficulty with the Carter/en

One difficulty with the Carter and Irons results is that the way they assigned the allocator and receiver roles leaves open possible differences in the interpretation of what behavior is required in the name of fairness. In particular, allocators earned their role by having achieved higher scores on a preliminary word game. Allocators might thus reason that they were entitled to a greater share of the surplus on the strength of their earlier performance. The observed differences in the behavior of economics majors and nonmajors might therefore be ascribed to a differential tendency to attach significance to the earlier performance differences. The training received by economics students in the marginal productivity theory of wages lends at least surface plausibility to this interpretation.