Inequality of Opportunity and Income Redistribution

Marcel Preuss (), Germán Reyes, Jason Somerville () and Joy Wu ()
Additional contact information
Marcel Preuss: Cornell University
Jason Somerville: Federal Reserve Bank of New York
Joy Wu: University of British Columbia

No 17155, IZA Discussion Papers from Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)

Abstract: Support for redistribution depends on whether inequality stems from differences in performance or luck, but different sources of luck may impact redistribution differentially. We elicit redistribution decisions from a U.S.-representative sample who observe worker earnings and whether luck influenced their earnings directly ("lucky outcomes") or indirectly by providing a relative advantage ("lucky opportunities"). Participants redistribute less under lucky opportunities. When assessing the impact of unequal opportunities, individuals rely on a heuristic that leads them to underestimate how even a small relative advantage can substantially influence worker earnings. Our findings highlight the role of inferential challenges in shaping attitudes towards inequality.

Keywords: redistribution; inequality; unequal opportunities; luck (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C91 D63 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 60 pages
Date: 2024-07
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-exp
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Forthcoming - forthcoming in: Journal of Political Economy Microeconomics

Downloads: (external link)
https://docs.iza.org/dp17155.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
Working Paper: Inequality of Opportunity and Income Redistribution (2024)
Working Paper: Inequality of Opportunity and Income Redistribution (2023)
Working Paper: Inequality of Opportunity and Income Redistribution (2023)
Working Paper: Inequality of Opportunity and Income Redistribution (2022)
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:iza:izadps:dp17155

Ordering information: This working paper can be ordered from
IZA, Margard Ody, P.O. Box 7240, D-53072 Bonn, Germany

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in IZA Discussion Papers from Institute of Labor Economics (IZA) IZA, P.O. Box 7240, D-53072 Bonn, Germany. Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Holger Hinte ().