Individual Preferences for Political Redistribution
32 Pages Posted: 22 Mar 2001
Date Written: February 2001
Abstract
What drives people's support of governmental reduction of income inequality? We employ data from a large international survey in order to evaluate the explanatory power of three competing forces, referred to as the "homo oeconomicus effect", the "public values effect", and the "social rivalry effect". The empirical analysis reveals that at the aggregate level all three effects play a significant role in shaping individual preferences for political redistribution. Attitudes of citizens in formerly socialist countries turn out to differ from those of western citizens in a systematic way.
Keywords: Governmental redistribution, political attitudes
JEL Classification: D31, D72, H23
Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation
Do you have negative results from your research you’d like to share?
Recommended Papers
-
Preferences for Redistribution
By Alberto F. Alesina and Paola Giuliano
-
Preferences for Redistribution
By Alberto F. Alesina and Paola Giuliano
-
Preferences for Redistribution
By Alberto F. Alesina and Paola Giuliano
-
Social Mobility and the Demand for Redistribution: the Poum Hypothesis
By Roland Bénabou and Efe A. Ok
-
Why Doesn't the Us Have a European-Style Welfare State?
By Alberto F. Alesina, Edward L. Glaeser, ...
-
Belief in a Just World and Redistributive Politics
By Roland Bénabou and Jean Tirole