Does Wealth Reduce Support for Redistribution? Evidence from an Ethiopian Housing Lottery

Asbjørn G. Andersen, Simon Franklin, Andreas Kotsadam, Vincent Somville, Espen Villanger and Tigabu Getahun
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Asbjørn G. Andersen: Ragnar Frisch Centre for Economic Research
Espen Villanger: Chr. Michelsen Institute
Tigabu Getahun: EDRI

No 18/2020, Discussion Paper Series in Economics from Norwegian School of Economics, Department of Economics

Abstract: We provide causal evidence of how an increase in wealth affects support for redistribution and beliefs about the causes of poverty. Exploiting the variation in wealth created by an Ethiopian housing lottery, we show that general attitudes toward redistribution and inequality acceptance are relatively insensitive to economic circumstances although winners are less favorable of taxing homeowners. Further, we find evidence of endogenous beliefs: relative to losers, the wealthier winners are more likely to attribute poverty to character traits and less likely to emphasize the role of luck. We interpret this as evidence of a self-serving bias.

Keywords: Inequality; Poverty (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I30 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 81 pages
Date: 2020-09-16
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-ure
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (5)

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Journal Article: Does wealth reduce support for redistribution? Evidence from an Ethiopian housing lottery (2023)
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