Measuring Distributive Justice Preferences of Finnish University Students via the State Budget

We measure the distributive justice preferences of students within eight departments in the faculty of Social Sciences at the University of Turku, Finland. We use the Finnish government's annual budget and its specific appropriations as a proxy to measure the students' underlying preferences. We test whether the type of studies of the respondents is associated with the preferences one has for increases or decreases on specific programmes financed via the budget. Students of economics preferred more money for technological investments and research, as well as for “law and order” programmes. They wanted much less spending for subsidies of any sort. On the other hand, those in social—type disciplines, preferred the opposite, that is, less funding for technology‐related programmes and more money for pensions and subsidies.