American Economic Review Vol. 105 No. 4 2015

How Elastic Are Preferences for Redistribution? Evidence from Randomized Survey Experiments

Ilyana Kuziemko¹; Michael I. Norton²; Emmanuel Saez³; Stefanie Stantcheva⁴

¹ Princeton University, Princeton, NJ 08544 (e-mail: ) · ² Harvard Business School, Soldiers Field Road, Boston, MA 02163 (e-mail: ) · ³ University of California, 530 Evans Hall #3880, Berkeley, CA 94720 (e-mail: ) · ⁴ Harvard University, Littauer Center 226, Cambridge, MA 02138 (e-mail: )

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.

DOI

10.1257/aer.20130360

Volume

105

Issue

4

Pages

1478-1508

Language

en

Sources

openalex crossref bibtex:phds-export.bib

Cite

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