Inequality Aversion and Voting on Redistribution

Wolfgang Höchtl (), Rupert Sausgruber and Jean-Robert Tyran

Working Papers from Faculty of Economics and Statistics, Universität Innsbruck

Abstract: Mounting evidence shows that there is heterogeneity in aversion to inequality, i.e. that some people have a concern for a fair distribution. Does such a concern matter for majority voting on redistribution? Fairness preferences are relevant for redistribution outcomes only if fair voters are pivotal. Pivotality, in turn, depends on the structure of income classes. We experimentally study voting on redistribution between two income classes and show that the effects of inequality aversion are asymmetric. Inequality aversion is more likely to matter if the "rich" are in majority. With a "poor" majority, we find that redistribution outcomes look as if all voters were exclusively motivated by their pocketbook.

Keywords: redistribution; self interest; inequality aversion; median voter; experiment (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: A13 C9 D72 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 36
Date: 2011-06
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-cdm, nep-exp and nep-pol
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https://www2.uibk.ac.at/downloads/c4041030/wpaper/2011-13.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
Journal Article: Inequality aversion and voting on redistribution (2012)
Working Paper: Inequality Aversion and Voting on Redistribution (2011)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:inn:wpaper:2011-13

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