American Economic Review· 2015Q1
How Elastic Are Preferences for Redistribution? Evidence from Randomized Survey Experiments
- 1,078citations
- Q1SCImago
- 2015year
Short summary
Providing customized information on US income inequality and tax policies only slightly shifts public preferences for redistribution, except for the estate tax, where informing respondents about its low incidence doubles support.
AI-generated from the title and abstract; the full text is not read.
Key points
- Customized information on US income inequality and tax policies had minimal impact on redistribution preferences.
- Informing respondents that few decedents pay the estate tax doubled support for it.
- Low trust in government and a disconnect between social issues and policy solutions partially explain limited preference shifts.
- Interactive, customized information was used in randomized online survey experiments.
AI-generated from the title and abstract; the full text is not read.
Abstract
We analyze randomized online survey experiments providing interactive, customized information on US income inequality, the link between top income tax rates and economic growth, and the estate tax. The treatment has large effects on views about inequality but only slightly moves tax and transfer policy preferences. An exception is the estate tax—informing respondents of the small share of decedents who pay it doubles support for it. The small effects for all other policies can be partially explained by respondents' low trust in government and a disconnect between concerns about social issues and the public policies meant to address them. (JEL D31, D72, H23, H24)
The authors' abstract, as published at the source. American Economic Review, 2015 · DOI ↗
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Field: Gender Studies
Gender StudiesSocial Sciences