The Consequences of Inequality: Beliefs and Redistributive Preferences

Max Lobeck and Morten Støstad

No 10710, CESifo Working Paper Series from CESifo

Abstract: What matters for individuals’ preferences for redistribution? In this paper we show that consequentialist beliefs about inequality — beliefs about how economic inequality changes the crime rate or the quality of democratic institutions, for example — have a large causal impact on individuals’ redistributive preferences. Using two representative surveys of a combined 6,731 U.S. citizens, we show that a majority of respondents believe that inequality leads to a wide range of negative societal outcomes. We establish a causal link from such beliefs to individuals’ redistributive preferences by using exogenously provided video information treatments. With this and other methods we show that inequality externality beliefs impact redistributive preferences on the same order of magnitude as broad economic fairness views. These inequality externality beliefs are relatively equally held across political affiliations as well as incomes. We discuss whether a focus on inequality’s consequences could shape a distinct conversation about redistribution.

Keywords: inequality; inequality externalities; surveys; redistribution (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C83 C90 D63 H20 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (8)

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Related works:
Working Paper: The Consequences of Inequality: Beliefs and Redistributive Preferences (2023)
Working Paper: The Consequences of Inequality: Beliefs and Redistributive Preferences (2023)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ces:ceswps:_10710

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