Not all luck is created equal: Sources of income inequality and willingness to redistribute

IF 2.5 2区 经济学 Q2 ECONOMICS
Reilly Wright , Abraham Aldama
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引用次数: 0

Abstract

Despite steadily rising inequality in the US over the last few decades, demand for increasing tax rates and redistribution has not increased. A growing literature argues that one reason for this is that people might perceive inequality to be fair. This literature has documented that Americans tend to perceive economic inequality stemming from merit as being fair and inequality stemming from luck as unfair. However, “lucky breaks” in the real world do not necessarily come from a lottery or random chance but from the actions of the government favoring a “lucky” few. People might be more willing to redistribute if it compensates those negatively affected by government action. Using an online experiment we show that luck stemming from the action of a government-like actor influences individuals’ desire to redistribute earnings making them more likely to favor redistribution than in instances where inequality is caused by merit or by random luck.

并非所有的运气都是平等的:收入不平等的来源和再分配的意愿
尽管过去几十年美国的不平等程度稳步上升,但要求提高税率和再分配的呼声并未增加。越来越多的文献认为,其中一个原因是人们可能认为不平等是公平的。这些文献表明,美国人倾向于认为由功绩引起的经济不平等是公平的,而由运气引起的不平等是不公平的。然而,现实世界中的“幸运”并不一定来自彩票或随机机会,而是来自政府对“幸运”少数人的偏袒。如果能补偿那些受到政府行为负面影响的人,人们可能更愿意进行再分配。通过一项在线实验,我们发现,与由功绩或随机运气造成的不平等相比,来自类似政府的行为者的运气会影响个人对收入再分配的愿望,使他们更有可能支持再分配。
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来源期刊
CiteScore
5.20
自引率
31.40%
发文量
69
审稿时长
63 days
期刊介绍: The Journal aims to present research that will improve understanding of behavioral, in particular psychological, aspects of economic phenomena and processes. The Journal seeks to be a channel for the increased interest in using behavioral science methods for the study of economic behavior, and so to contribute to better solutions of societal problems, by stimulating new approaches and new theorizing about economic affairs. Economic psychology as a discipline studies the psychological mechanisms that underlie economic behavior. It deals with preferences, judgments, choices, economic interaction, and factors influencing these, as well as the consequences of judgements and decisions for economic processes and phenomena. This includes the impact of economic institutions upon human behavior and well-being. Studies in economic psychology may relate to different levels of aggregation, from the household and the individual consumer to the macro level of whole nations. Economic behavior in connection with inflation, unemployment, taxation, economic development, as well as consumer information and economic behavior in the market place are thus among the fields of interest. The journal also encourages submissions dealing with social interaction in economic contexts, like bargaining, negotiation, or group decision-making. The Journal of Economic Psychology contains: (a) novel reports of empirical (including: experimental) research on economic behavior; (b) replications studies; (c) assessments of the state of the art in economic psychology; (d) articles providing a theoretical perspective or a frame of reference for the study of economic behavior; (e) articles explaining the implications of theoretical developments for practical applications; (f) book reviews; (g) announcements of meetings, conferences and seminars.
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