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Why Are Relatively Poor People Not More Supportive of Redistribution? Evidence from a Randomized Survey Experiment across Ten Countries
- Source :
- American Economic Journal: Economic Policy. 13:299-328
- Publication Year :
- 2021
- Publisher :
- American Economic Association, 2021.
-
Abstract
- We test a key assumption underlying seminal theories about preferences for redistribution, which is that relatively poor people should be the most in favor of redistribution. We conduct a randomized survey experiment with over 30,000 participants across 10 countries, half of whom are informed of their position in the national income distribution. Contrary to prevailing wisdom, people who are told they are relatively poorer than they thought are less concerned about inequality and are not more supportive of redistribution. This finding is consistent with people using their own living standard as a “benchmark” for what they consider acceptable for others. (JEL D12, D31, H23, I31, I32)
- Subjects :
- Inequality
business.industry
media_common.quotation_subject
Measures of national income and output
Distribution (economics)
Redistribution (cultural anthropology)
Survey experiment
Test (assessment)
Poor people
Position (finance)
Demographic economics
Psychology
business
General Economics, Econometrics and Finance
media_common
Subjects
Details
- ISSN :
- 1945774X and 19457731
- Volume :
- 13
- Database :
- OpenAIRE
- Journal :
- American Economic Journal: Economic Policy
- Accession number :
- edsair.doi...........86fe850b66a4991d784438771217c3fb