Perception of corruption and public support for redistribution in Latin America

Esther Hauk, Mónica Oviedo and Xavier Ramos

European Journal of Political Economy, 2022, vol. 74, issue C

Abstract: This paper studies the relationship between people’s beliefs about the quality of their institutions, as measured by corruption perceptions, and preferences for redistribution in Latin America. Our empirical study is guided by a theoretical model which introduces taxes into Foellmi and Oechslin’s (2007) general equilibrium model of non-collusive corruption. In this model perceived corruption influences people’s preferences for redistribution through two channels. On the one hand it undermines trust in government, which reduces people’s support for redistribution. On the other hand, more corruption decreases own wealth relative to average wealth of below-average-wealth individuals leading to a higher demand for redistribution. Thus, the effect of perceived corruption on redistribution cannot be signed a priori. Our novel empirical findings for Latin America suggest that perceiving corruption in the public sector increases people’s support for redistribution. Although the wealth channel dominates in the data, we also find evidence for the trust channel — from corruption to demand for redistribution via reduced trust.

Keywords: Preference for redistribution; Corruption perceptions; Political trust; Bribery; Latin America (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D31 D63 D73 H1 H2 P16 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

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Related works:
Working Paper: Perception of Corruption and Public Support for Redistribution in Latin America (2017)
Working Paper: Perception of Corruption and Public Support for Redistribution in Latin America (2017)
Working Paper: Perception of Corruption and Public Support for Redistribution in Latin America (2017)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:poleco:v:74:y:2022:i:c:s0176268021001403

DOI: 10.1016/j.ejpoleco.2021.102174

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