Capital vs. labour: The effect of income sources on attitudes toward the top 1 percent

Abstract

We conduct a randomized online survey to study how information on the share of top earners' income derived from capital and labour affects attitudes toward top earners. Our findings re-veal that: (i) At the baseline, respondents tend to overestimate the income of the top 1 percent, have no clear priors on their capital vs. labor shares, and want them to pay a higher income tax rate than the current one; (ii) quantitative information on top earners’ income sources leads people to have more unfavorable views toward the rich; (iii) individuals most responsive to our treatments vote for left-wing candidates and have egalitarian notions of justice.