The paper uses information on actual and hypothetical charitable contributions to cancer research in the United Kingdom to elicit information on justice principles endorsed by donors. They face a choice between fund-raising contributions for several hereditary and lifestyle-related cancers. Donors’ choices of how much to donate to different cancers reveal how they view luck vis-a-vis risky individual choices. The estimation results reveal that donations are smaller for cancers with higher prevention rates, which is the probability that the potential cancer victim can avoid the cancer in question by some choice. We also find that provision of information on lifestyle-related causes of cancer adversely affects contributions. In contrast, information on hereditary causes has a positive effect on donations. Furthermore, a large share of donors indicated in their feedback that they chose donations to a hereditary over a lifestyle-related cancer to “punish” poor individual choices. These findings suggest that many donors lean toward choice egalitarianism, which conditions donations on the potential beneficiaries’ choices.

该论文使用有关英国癌症研究的实际和假设慈善捐款的信息，以获取有关捐助者认可的正义原则的信息。他们面临着为几种遗传性癌症和与生活方式相关的癌症筹集资金的选择。捐赠者对不同癌症捐赠多少的选择揭示了他们如何看待运气与危险的个人选择。估计结果显示，对于预防率较高的癌症，捐款较少，这是潜在的癌症受害者可以通过某种选择避免所讨论的癌症的概率。我们还发现，提供与生活方式相关的癌症原因的信息会对贡献产生不利影响。相比之下，有关遗传原因的信息对捐赠有积极影响。此外，很大一部分捐赠者在他们的反馈中表示，他们选择捐赠给遗传者而不是与生活方式相关的癌症，以“惩罚”个人的不良选择。这些发现表明，许多捐赠者倾向于选择平等主义，这将捐赠取决于潜在受益人的选择。