Picking Winners: Public Beliefs about the Morality of Lotteries

Should Yale students be randomly selected from all qualified applicants?
Should access to scarce, life-saving drugs be based on a lottery?
Should military service be randomized?

This project explores public beliefs about whether lotteries are a fair means of distributing valuable resources and opportunities. We consider when lotteries are accepted, and when they are rejected, as a method of allocation.

The project is in an early conceptualization phase. The Spring 2025 RA will conduct a literature review on lotteries and randomization and collect case studies of public debate over the implementation of lottery systems in cases like public housing allocation, military drafts, school admissions, research funding, access to medical treatment, and military draft systems.

Following this semester, there will be an opportunity to continue with empirical work on the project, which is likely to include both qualitative comparative case analysis and experiments.