Biased Perceptions of Income Inequality and Redistribution

Carina Engelhardt and Andreas Wagener

Hannover Economic Papers (HEP) from Leibniz Universität Hannover, Wirtschaftswissenschaftliche Fakultät

Abstract: When based on perceived rather than o n objective income distributions, the Meltzer- Richards hypothesis and the POUM hypothesis work quite well empirically: there exists a positive link between perceived inequality or perceived upward mobility and the extent of redistribution in democratic regimes - though such a link does not exist when objective measures of inequality and social mobility are used. These observations highlight that political preferences and choices might depend more on perceptions than on factual data.

Keywords: Biased Perception; Majority Voting; Redistribution (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D31 D72 H53 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 22 pages
Date: 2014-02
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-cdm, nep-ltv, nep-pol and nep-pub
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (65)

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Related works:
Working Paper: Biased Perceptions of Income Inequality and Redistribution (2014)
Working Paper: Biased Perceptions of Income Inequality and Redistribution (2014)
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