Richer (and Holier) Than Thou? The Effect of Relative Income Improvements on Demand for Redistribution

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Karadja, Mounir; Mollerstrom, Johanna; Seim, David
• 署名单位: Uppsala University; Humboldt University of Berlin; Leibniz Association; DIW Berlin - Deutsches Institut fur Wirtschaftsforschung; Research Institute of Industrial Economics (IFN); Stockholm University
• 刊物名称: REVIEW OF ECONOMICS AND STATISTICS
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0034-6535
• DOI: 10.1162/REST_a_00623
• 发表日期: 2017-05
• 页码: 201-212
• 关键词: preferences; INEQUALITY; perceptions; POLITICS; fairness; outcomes

摘要

We use a tailor-made survey on a Swedish sample to investigate how individuals' relative income affects their demand for redistribution. We first document that a majority misperceive their position in the income distribution and believe that they are poorer, relative to others, than they actually are. We then inform a subsample about their true relative income and find that individuals who are richer than they initially thought demand less redistribution. This result is driven by individuals with prior right-of-center political preferences who view taxes as distortive and believe that effort, rather than luck, drives individual economic success.