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The rampant levels of inequality in the advanced democracies have triggered a wave of scholarship about their determinants, and the potential solutions to correct them. The causes behind this increase in inequality are complex. Among the many proposals for reform, specialists suggest a return to more progressive instruments of taxation of income and wealth. In this project, we are interested in studying the scope of political support for such potential reforms. Under what conditions do individuals, particularly high-income ones as potential contributors, support more progressive tax schemas? Building on the evidence from the literature on information and political behavior, which suggests that citizens often have very poor knowledge about income groups, we intend to analyze the relationship between low levels of economic information and its effects on preferences for redistributive policies. We claim that information about the progressivity of the fiscal system affects the preferences over redistributive tax and transfer policies, in other words, the ability of the governments to tackle increasing levels of income inequality.

Survey of political attitudes surrounding wealth and income inequality and taxation in 7 EU countries Differences in wealth, such as homeownership, pensions, and financial savings, and income inequality fundamentally shape the economic and political opportunities open to people in the twenty-first century. Shocks to the distribution and the level of wealth have had dramatic political impacts, unseating incumbent governments, destabilizing the EU, and producing a surge in support for populist movements. Housing shortages have widened disparities in wealth and contribute to polarization between homeowners and renters, as well as between older and younger generations. And the transmission of wealth from one generation to the next shapes the future of social stratification, with homeownership often only affordable to citizens expecting large inheritances. Furthermore, rising income inequality has led to stagnating or even falling living standards for the middle and lower classes in some countries. Understanding what income and wealth inequality mean for political attitudes and preferences is thus of paramount importance. While inequality research has been central to the social sciences, income inequality has attracted much of the attention and wealth inequality has, until recently, been relatively neglected. This may be not least because because it remains challenging to study the relationship between household wealth, individuals' position on the wealth distribution, and their political preferences with existing data sources. Large-scale international surveys such as the European Social Survey at best ask about homeownership status and generally collect little information about household wealth. Thus, the role of wealth in shaping political preferences in important domains such as taxation and redistribution is poorly understood, especially in a cross-national perspective. Given this background, important questions emerge. How do differences across countries in people's perceptions of income and wealth inequality influence tax preferences? Are there differences in how accurately people assess their own position, and does this affect how they think about inequality? Are people aware just how much more unequally wealth is distributed compared to income, and does presenting them with this information shift their tax mix preferences towards heavier taxation of wealth and inheritances? How are people's political efficacy and attitudes towards government affected by learning about inequality? The objective of this survey experiment is to collect high quality data from 7 European countries that allow us to examine these and related questions using information treatments and a conjoint experiment.

How do wealth and income affect individuals’ attitudes towards redistribution and taxation? Online Laboratory