Abstract
Optimal allocation of life-saving medical treatment depends on society’s preferences over bundles of survival times. I experimentally elicit preferences over survival time distributions in incentivized, life-or-death decisions by having subjects allocate a real organ transplant among cats with kidney failure. Allocations in the experiment identify indifference curves over survival bundles. Most subjects value both total survival time and equality of survival times; few prefer to save the shortest-lived patient at all costs, despite the prevalence of this approach in allocating transplants in practice. Aversion to monetary inequality strongly predicts aversion to survival inequality.
PaperLink (coming soon)
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