Arbeitspapier
The Consequences of Inequality: Beliefs and Redistributive Preferences
What matters for individuals' preferences for redistribution? In this paper we show that consequentialist beliefs about inequality — beliefs about how economic inequality changes the crime rate or the quality of democratic institutions, for example — have a large causal impact on individuals' redistributive preferences. Using two representative surveys of a combined 6,731 U.S. citizens, we show that a majority of respondents believe that inequality leads to a wide range of negative societal outcomes. We establish a causal link from such beliefs to individuals' redistributive preferences by using exogenously provided video information treatments. With this and other methods we show that inequality externality beliefs impact redistributive preferences on the same order of magnitude as broad economic fairness views. These inequality externality beliefs are relatively equally held across political affiliations as well as incomes. We discuss whether a focus on inequality's consequences could shape a distinct conversation about redistribution.
- Language
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Englisch
- Bibliographic citation
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Series: CESifo Working Paper ; No. 10710
- Classification
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Wirtschaft
Survey Methods; Sampling Methods
Design of Experiments: General
Equity, Justice, Inequality, and Other Normative Criteria and Measurement
Taxation, Subsidies, and Revenue: General
- Subject
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inequality
inequality externalities
surveys
redistribution
- Event
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Geistige Schöpfung
- (who)
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Lobeck, Max
Støstad, Morten Nyborg
- Event
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Veröffentlichung
- (who)
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Center for Economic Studies and ifo Institute (CESifo)
- (where)
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Munich
- (when)
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2023
- Handle
- Last update
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10.03.2025, 11:43 AM CET
Data provider
ZBW - Deutsche Zentralbibliothek für Wirtschaftswissenschaften - Leibniz-Informationszentrum Wirtschaft. If you have any questions about the object, please contact the data provider.
Object type
- Arbeitspapier
Associated
- Lobeck, Max
- Støstad, Morten Nyborg
- Center for Economic Studies and ifo Institute (CESifo)
Time of origin
- 2023