Biased perceptions of income distribution and preferences for redistribution: Evidence from a survey experiment

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Cruces, Guillermo; Perez-Truglia, Ricardo; Tetaz, Martin
• 署名单位: National University of La Plata; IZA Institute Labor Economics; Harvard University
• 刊物名称: JOURNAL OF PUBLIC ECONOMICS
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0047-2727
• DOI: 10.1016/j.jpubeco.2012.10.009
• 发表日期: 2013
• 页码: 100-112
• 关键词: Income distribution; Biased perceptions; Limited information; Preferences for redistribution

摘要

Individual perceptions of income distribution play a vital role in political economy and public finance models, yet there is little evidence regarding their origins or accuracy. This study examines how individuals form these perceptions and explores their potential impact on preferences for redistribution. A tailored household survey provides original evidence on systematic biases in individuals' evaluations of their own relative position in the income distribution. The study discusses one of the mechanisms that may generate such biases, based on the extrapolation of information from endogenous reference groups, and presents some suggestive evidence that this mechanism has significant explanatory power. The impact of these biased perceptions on attitudes toward redistributive policies is studied by means of an experimental design that was incorporated into the survey, which provided consistent information on the own-ranking within the income distribution to a randomly selected group of respondents. The evidence suggests that those who had overestimated their relative position and thought that they were relatively richer than they were tend to demand higher levels of redistribution when informed of their true ranking. (C) 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.