Perceived income positions and attitudes towards EU inequality: A cross-country survey experiment

Elisabeth Sattler-Bublitz, Hequn Wang, Julian Jäger, Miriam Beblo and Henning Lohmann

No 70, WiSo-HH Working Paper Series from University of Hamburg, Faculty of Business, Economics and Social Sciences, WISO Research Laboratory

Abstract: We examine the relationship between perceived income positions and attitudes towards inequality at a supranational-level. Conducting a survey in four EU Member States (Germany, Italy, Poland, and Sweden), we confirm that their citizens misperceive their own income position in the EU. Once we account for these misperceptions, we find that those with a lower income rank assess EU income differences as more unjust and are more supportive of an EU minimum wage. When we inform a randomized subsample about their actual income position in the EU, those who learn to be richer than they initially thought assess EU income differences as less unjust. Respondents in Italy, Poland, and to a lesser extent Sweden drive these results whereas income misperceptions of German respondents have opposing effects.

Keywords: Income; Misperceptions; Inequality; EU Minimum Wage; European Union; Survey Experiment (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D31 D63 F55 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-eec, nep-eur, nep-exp and nep-tra
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:zbw:uhhwps:70

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