Preferences for Wealth Redistribution: The Role of Social Background and Merit

Elisa Stumpf () and Silke Uebelmesser ()
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Elisa Stumpf: Friedrich Schiller University Jena
Silke Uebelmesser: Friedrich Schiller University Jena, CESifo

No 2025-008, Jena Economics Research Papers from Friedrich-Schiller-University Jena

Abstract: This paper investigates preferences for wealth redistribution through a conjoint experiment. Specifically, we explore how support for wealth redistribution depends on the social background of the taxpayer and whether their wealth is perceived as resulting from luck or hard work. Our findings reveal significantly more support for taxing individuals from rich families, an effect that is particularly pronounced among relatively poor participants and those with low trust in official statistics. Attributing wealth to luck rather than effort also increases support for taxation, though this effect is less substantial than the influence of a privileged background. When individuals are both from a wealthy family and being perceived as lucky, the combined effect on support for taxation is only marginally larger than either factor alone.

Keywords: wealth inequality; preferences for redistribution; wealth tax; conjoint experiment (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C90 D31 D63 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025-08-07
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-exp and nep-pbe
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:jrp:jrpwrp:2025-0008

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