scholarly journals Biased Perceptions of Income Distribution and Preferences for Redistribution: Evidence from a Survey Experiment

2011 ◽  
Author(s):  
Guillermo Cruces ◽  
Ricardo Perez-Truglia
Keyword(s):  
Income Distribution ◽  
Survey Experiment ◽  
Preferences For Redistribution

scholarly journals Misperceptions of income distributions: cross-country evidence from a randomized survey experiment

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elisabeth Bublitz
Keyword(s):  
Income Distribution ◽  
Imperfect Information ◽  
Survey Experiment ◽  
Significant Treatment ◽  
Income Distributions ◽  
Position Bias ◽  
Preferences For Redistribution ◽  
The Usa ◽  
Cross Country ◽  
Information Treatment

Abstract Can imperfect information, as revealed in individual misperceptions about income distributions, explain the demand for redistribution? I conduct a representative survey experiment in Brazil, France, Germany, Russia, Spain and the USA, providing a personalized information treatment on income distribution to a randomly chosen subsample. Most respondents misperceive their own position in the income distribution. These biases differ notably by country and the true income position. Correcting misperceptions slightly shifts the demand towards less redistribution in Germany and Russia. This shift appears to be driven by respondents with a negative position bias. The lack of significant treatment effects in other countries may result from different individual reactions that cancel each other out. Thus, the existence of systematic misperceptions underscores their importance for understanding preferences for redistribution.

Why Are Relatively Poor People Not More Supportive of Redistribution? Evidence from a Randomized Survey Experiment across Ten Countries

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (4) ◽  
pp. 299-328
Author(s):  
Christopher Hoy ◽  
Franziska Mager
Keyword(s):  
Income Distribution ◽  
National Income ◽  
Living Standard ◽  
Poor People ◽  
Survey Experiment ◽  
Preferences For Redistribution

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)

scholarly journals How do perceptions of inequality and opportunity affect preferences for redistribution?

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ugur Yildirim
Keyword(s):  
Voting Behavior ◽  
Economic Inequality ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Economic Opportunity ◽  
Survey Experiment ◽  
High Quality ◽  
Online Data ◽  
Preferences For Redistribution ◽  
Government Involvement ◽  
Perceptions Of Inequality

Americans’ distributional preferences are known to influence their political and voting behavior, but we do not know enough about the determinants of those preferences. How do perceptions of economic inequality and economic opportunity influence redistributive preferences? I answer this question using an innovative survey experiment that jointly manipulates perceptions of economic inequality and economic opportunity. The treatments are administered in the form of videos using a new ask-then-tell design, and the sample is gathered from a novel, high-quality source of online data. I find that receiving pessimistic information about inequality makes respondents more pessimistic about the state of inequality and more supportive of government involvement; on the other hand, the addition of pessimistic information about opportunity does not lead to any more concern for inequality or support for redistribution when pessimistic information about inequality is already present. Implications for future research are discussed.

scholarly journals Income Perception, Information, and Progressive Taxation: Evidence from a Survey Experiment

2015 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 83-110 ◽  
Author(s):  
José Fernández-Albertos ◽  
Alexander Kuo
Keyword(s):  
Political Economy ◽  
Income Distribution ◽  
Survey Data ◽  
Accurate Information ◽  
Survey Experiment ◽  
Comparative Political Economy ◽  
Present Survey ◽  
Tax Progressivity ◽  
Considerable Error ◽  
The Impact

Are individuals accurately informed about their place in the income distribution? Despite the importance of accurate information about one’s placement in the income distribution for many models of redistribution, this assumption remains untested. We present survey data and an embedded experiment where we inform some individuals their true place in the income distribution. We then assess the impact of such information on tax progressivity preferences. We find that individuals have considerable error regarding their self-placement in the income distribution. Revealing to individuals their true placement affects progressivity preferences for individuals who learn they are poor, and for individuals whose prior is that they are poor. These results have implications for information assumptions of redistribution models of comparative political economy and contribute to our understanding of tax preferences, an understudied dimension of redistribution preferences.

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