How do wealth and income affect individuals' attitudes towards redistribution and taxation?

How do wealth and income influence individual attitudes towards taxation and redistri- bution? We conduct a laboratory experiment in which we introduce random variation in participants’ earned income and endowed wealth, as well as in the information that they receive about their place in the distrib...

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Main Authors: Ansell, B, Bokobza, L, Cansunar, A, Elkjaer, M, Markgraf, J, Nyrup, J
Format: Working paper
Language:English
Published: 2022
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author Ansell, B
Bokobza, L
Cansunar, A
Elkjaer, M
Markgraf, J
Nyrup, J
author_facet Ansell, B
Bokobza, L
Cansunar, A
Elkjaer, M
Markgraf, J
Nyrup, J
author_sort Ansell, B
collection OXFORD
description How do wealth and income influence individual attitudes towards taxation and redistri- bution? We conduct a laboratory experiment in which we introduce random variation in participants’ earned income and endowed wealth, as well as in the information that they receive about their place in the distribution of income and wealth, and exam- ine how participants choose to tax each other’s income and wealth. We find strong evidence that exogenously higher income produces lower income tax preferences and exogenously higher wealth produces lower wealth tax preferences. However, there is minimal ‘bleed-over’ from income to wealth tax preferences or wealth to income tax preferences. Finally, we find that providing information about where people fit in the separate income and wealth distributions, as opposed to just their aggregate resources, heightens the importance of participants’ experimental income for income tax prefer- ences but has the reverse effect for their experimental wealth endowment on wealth tax preferences.
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spelling oxford-uuid:008b9c94-0c32-4faf-8cf4-ef56780c92be2022-10-31T10:47:27ZHow do wealth and income affect individuals' attitudes towards redistribution and taxation?Working paperhttp://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_8042uuid:008b9c94-0c32-4faf-8cf4-ef56780c92beEnglishSymplectic Elements2022Ansell, BBokobza, LCansunar, AElkjaer, MMarkgraf, JNyrup, JHow do wealth and income influence individual attitudes towards taxation and redistri- bution? We conduct a laboratory experiment in which we introduce random variation in participants’ earned income and endowed wealth, as well as in the information that they receive about their place in the distribution of income and wealth, and exam- ine how participants choose to tax each other’s income and wealth. We find strong evidence that exogenously higher income produces lower income tax preferences and exogenously higher wealth produces lower wealth tax preferences. However, there is minimal ‘bleed-over’ from income to wealth tax preferences or wealth to income tax preferences. Finally, we find that providing information about where people fit in the separate income and wealth distributions, as opposed to just their aggregate resources, heightens the importance of participants’ experimental income for income tax prefer- ences but has the reverse effect for their experimental wealth endowment on wealth tax preferences.
spellingShingle Ansell, B
Bokobza, L
Cansunar, A
Elkjaer, M
Markgraf, J
Nyrup, J
How do wealth and income affect individuals' attitudes towards redistribution and taxation?
title How do wealth and income affect individuals' attitudes towards redistribution and taxation?
title_full How do wealth and income affect individuals' attitudes towards redistribution and taxation?
title_fullStr How do wealth and income affect individuals' attitudes towards redistribution and taxation?
title_full_unstemmed How do wealth and income affect individuals' attitudes towards redistribution and taxation?
title_short How do wealth and income affect individuals' attitudes towards redistribution and taxation?
title_sort how do wealth and income affect individuals attitudes towards redistribution and taxation
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