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Social Preferences and Redistributive Politics

Ernst Fehr¹; Thomas Epper^2,3; Julien Senn⁴

¹ Department of Economics, Zurich University. Blümlisalpstrasse 10, 8006 Zurich, Switzerland [email protected] · ² CNRS, IESEG School of Management, Univ. Lille, UMR 9221- LEM - Lille Economie Management, F-59000 Lille, France · ³ iRisk Research Center on Risk and Uncertainty, France [email protected] · ⁴ Department of Economics, Zurich University. Blümlisalpstrasse 10, 8006 Zurich, Switzerland [email protected]

Abstract We study the link between social preferences and a behaviorally validated measure of support for redistribution. We uncover three fundamentally distinct social preference types: predominantly selfish, inequality averse and altruistic individuals. Inequality averse and altruistic individuals display a much stronger support for redistribution, particularly if they are more affluent. Beliefs about the role of effort and luck for success play no role for selfish individuals but are highly relevant for other-regarding individuals. Finally, while inequality averse individuals display strong support for policies aimed at reducing the incomes of the rich, altruistic individuals are considerably less supportive of these policies.

DOI

10.1162/rest_a_01511

Pages

1-45

Language

en

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