Don't shoot yourself in the foot! A (real-effort task) experiment on income redistribution and voting

Natalia Jiménez-Jiménez, Elena Molis and Ángel Solano-García
Authors registered in the RePEc Author Service: Angel Solano Garcia ()

European Journal of Political Economy, 2023, vol. 78, issue C

Abstract: This paper reports results from a laboratory experiment that investigates the Meltzer–Richard model of equilibrium tax rates in which individuals are either low or high skilled workers and face a real-effort task that includes leisure at the work place. We find that a large proportion of low-skilled workers vote for the lowest tax rate (the one that gives them the lowest payoff), especially when the alternative tax rate is very high. However, this proportion is significantly reduced in treatments in which the subjects are given extra information about how the tax operates in redistributing income. This result suggests that the lack of information about the role of taxes in income redistribution may be an important factor in explaining the counter-intuitive voting behavior of low-income voters over income redistribution. We also find some support that the prospect of upward mobility and the belief in the negative effect of taxes on productivity make low-income voters support low tax rates, especially when the alternative tax rate is very high.

Keywords: Income inequality; Income redistribution; Voting; Taxation; Real-effort task (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C92 D72 H30 J41 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:poleco:v:78:y:2023:i:c:s0176268022001288

DOI: 10.1016/j.ejpoleco.2022.102325

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