Fairness in markets and market experiments: insights from a field‐plus‐lab study and a failed replication

Abstract

We investigate how fairness in a laboratory experiment framed as a market exchange relates to preferences for fair trade products elicited before and at the end of the experiment. We collected two samples, 10 years apart. In the original sample, fairness in the market experiment measured by the willingness to buy at a higher price when higher wages are paid to the worker correlates both with the choice of a fair trade product and with the willingness to pay a positive fair trade premium. These correlations are not significant in the replication experiment, which indicates at best a weak relationship.