scholarly journals Income Inequality and Social Preferences for Redistribution and Compensation Differentials

2013 ◽  
Author(s):  
William R. Kerr
Keyword(s):  
Income Inequality ◽  
Social Preferences ◽  
Preferences For Redistribution ◽  
Compensation Differentials

scholarly journals The nexus between perceptions of inequality and preferences for redistribution

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Roberto Iacono ◽  
Marco Ranaldi
Keyword(s):  
Income Inequality ◽  
Inequality Aversion ◽  
Limited Information ◽  
Preferences For Redistribution ◽  
Information Agents ◽  
Key Factor ◽  
The Mean ◽  
Potential Factors ◽  
Perceptions Of Inequality ◽  
Information Treatment

AbstractThis paper shows that perceptions of inequality are a key factor in the formation of preferences for redistribution and thereby in the determination of the equilibrium redistribution level. We build on the novel stylized facts provided by the survey experimental literature on perceptions of income inequality, highlighting that agents incorrectly estimate the shape of the income distribution because of limited information. Agents with income above the mean believe they are poorer than they actually are, and agents with income below the mean believe themselves to be richer. We revisit the standard framework on the political economy of redistribution and extend it in two ways. First, we introduce a more general two-sided inequality aversion. Second, we incorporate perceptions of income inequality, modeled by assuming that agents form expectations on the income level of the richest and the poorest in society. We show analytically that the equilibrium redistribution level is crucially determined by the interplay between the information treatment correcting the bias in perceptions of inequality and fairness considerations specified by the degree of inequality aversion. By doing this, we add (biased) perceptions of inequality to the list of potential factors explaining why, notwithstanding high inequality, an increase in the desire for redistribution has not been observed in many countries.

Mayors, Partisanship, and Redistribution: Evidence Directly from U.S. Mayors

2016 ◽  
Vol 54 (1) ◽  
pp. 74-106 ◽  
Author(s):  
Katherine Levine Einstein ◽  
David M. Glick
Keyword(s):  
Income Inequality ◽  
Political Elites ◽  
Political Debates ◽  
Preferences For Redistribution ◽  
The Impact

Policymakers and scholars are increasingly looking to cities to address challenges including income inequality. No existing research, however, directly and systematically measures local political elites’ preferences for redistribution. We interview and survey 72 American mayors—including many from the nation’s largest cities—and collect public statements and policy programs to measure when and why mayors prioritize redistribution. While many of the mayors’ responses are consistent with being constrained by economic imperatives, a sizable minority prioritize redistributive programs. Moving beyond the question of whether mayors support redistribution, we find that partisanship explains much of the variation in a mayor’s propensity for redistribution. Moreover, the impact of partisanship very rarely varies with institutional and economic contexts. These findings suggest that national political debates may be shaping local priorities in ways contrary to conventional views, and that they may matter even more than other recent findings conclude.

scholarly journals Essays on inequality, economic growth and political polarization

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Juan Carlos Peña
Keyword(s):  
Economic Growth ◽  
Income Inequality ◽  
Voting Behavior ◽  
Social Preferences ◽  
Developing Economies ◽  
Social Consequences ◽  
Political Polarization ◽  
Public Attention ◽  
Dynamic Relationship ◽  
Advanced Economies

Economic inequality has moved into the focus of academic debate in the last decade as it gained increasing public attention in the aftermath of the financial crisis in 2007. The present dissertation contributes to the growing and existing literature on income inequality by presenting three contributions that empirically analyze the economic, political and social consequences of income inequality. Chapter 1 explores the dynamic relationship between economic growth and the different metrics of income inequality using a compiled dataset covering 110 advanced and developing economies from 1980 to 2016. Chapter 2 examines the macroeconomic and social determinants of voting behavior, and especially of political polarization, using a compiled dataset for 20 advanced economies from 1980 to 2016 which covers 291 parliamentary elections. Finally, chapter 3 investigates the effects of group identity and income inequality on social preferences and polarization by means of a laboratory experiment.

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