Diluting the perverse element of rational altruism

Some authors have demonstrated the value of egalitarian sharing rules in teams, even when team members have distinct abilities and make different contributions to team performance. However, we show the appearance of an undesirable component of rational altruism when marginal productivities differ across team members and an egalitarian sharing rule is used. We call this new component of rational altruism the Perverse Element of Rational Altruism (PERA). The presence of the PERA decreases team efficiency. In this sense, and considering several scenarios, an analysis of welfare implications and the evolution of team efficiency are presented.