The Generosity Puzzle

Why are many rich people generous to the poor, and why don’t the relatively less well-off demand more redistribution from the rich? These are the questions that drive Christina Fong's research, which is aimed at understanding how psychological motives affect economic behaviour and how policy can be improved through a better understanding of individual economic behaviour. Her work is focused on the areas of charity and public sector redistribution, but the motives also apply to behaviour in markets and other settings. One of her long-term goals is to achieve enough understanding of pro-social behaviour to help scientists and policy makers design better institutions for redistributing resources.

Ms. Fong's research lies in the areas of public economics, experimental economics and behavioural economics. More specifically, much of her research focuses on the role of fairness in redistributive attitudes and behaviour. Her studies have appeared in the Journal of Public Economics, the Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization and the American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, among others.

Christina Fong is Research Scientist in the Department of Social and Decision Sciences at Carnegie Mellon University. She holds a BA in Economics from the University of Michigan and an MA and PhD in Economics from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst.