TY - JOUR
T1 - Why Are Relatively Poor People Not More Supportive of Redistribution? Evidence from a Randomized Survey Experiment across Ten Countries†
AU - Hoy, Christopher
AU - Mager, Franziska
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2021, American Economic Journal: Economic Policy. All Rights Reserved.
PY - 2021/11
Y1 - 2021/11
N2 - 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.
AB - 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.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85119058426&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1257/pol.20190276
DO - 10.1257/pol.20190276
M3 - Article
SN - 1945-7731
VL - 13
SP - 299
EP - 328
JO - American Economic Journal: Economic Policy
JF - American Economic Journal: Economic Policy
IS - 4
ER -