A twofold subjective measure of income inequality

Social scientists have been aiming to calculate a “subjective income Gini coefficient”of survey respondents that would describe their beliefs about income inequality in their country. Niehues (Subjective perceptions of inequality and redistributive preferences: an international comparison, Cologne Institute for Economic Research, IWTRENDS Discussion Paper, 2014) derives this estimate from respondents’ beliefs about the relative sizes of different social classes (answers to “shape of society” questions), while Kuhn (The individual perception of wage inequality: a measurement framework and some empirical evidence, Technical report, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA), 2015) estimates it using beliefs about the pay structure. We combine their efforts to calculate what we call a twofold subjective Gini coefficient, which incorporates both pieces of information independently from one another. We present the country-level distribution of perceived and desired twofold subjective Gini coefficients using the ISSP Social Inequality V survey (ISSP Research Group in International social survey programme: social inequalityv—issp 2019, 2019. https://doi.org/10.4225/13/511C71F8612C3 ). Accounting for both subjective class structure and pay structure yields much lower perceived and desired levels of inequality. At the country level the averages of the twofold subjective Gini coefficients are closer to actual income Gini coefficients than the previous measures. At the individual level the twofold subjective Gini coefficients are better predictors of the individual’s verbal assessment of inequality and their preferences towards redistribution

An evaluation of common explanations for the impact of income inequality on life satisfaction

This study explains how income inequality affects life satisfaction in Europe. Although research about the impact of income inequality on life satisfaction is inconclusive, authors suggest several reasons for its potential impact. In the literature section we discuss three types of explanations for the impact of inequality: pure aversion for inequality, aversion for inequality motivated by how an individual is personally affected by inequality and preferences for equality of opportunities. In order to test these explanations, we examine how three corresponding variables, respectively attitude towards redistribution, income and perceived mobility, interact with both actual and perceived income inequality in multilevel analyses using data from the European Values Survey. Our results reveal that there are significant differences between how people are affected by actual income inequality and how they are affected by perceived income inequality. The impact of perceived income inequality on life satisfaction depends on perceived mobility in society and income, while the impact of actual income inequality solely depends on perceived mobility. We conclude that traditional explanations often erroneously assume that people correctly assess income inequality. Moreover these explanations are more capable of clarifying the effect of perceived income inequality on life satisfaction than that of actual inequality

Demand for Redistribution, Support for the Welfare State, and Party Identification in Austria

This paper describes subjective wage inequality and the demand for redistribution in Austria using individuals' estimates of occupational wages from the International Social Survey Program. Although these estimates differ widely across individuals, the data clearly show that most individuals would like to decrease wage inequality, relative to the level of inequality which they perceive to exist. The empirical analysis also shows that the demand for redistribution is strongly associated not only with variables describing self-interested motives for redistribution, but also with perceptions of and social norms with respect to inequality. Further, the demand for redistribution is a strong predictor for whether an individual is supportive of redistribution by the state. On the other hand, however, I find almost no evidence for an empirical association between the demand for redistribution and individuals' party identification.subjective inequality measures, demand for redistribution, support for the welfare state, party identification

Demand for Redistribution, Support for the Welfare State, and Party Identification in Austria

This paper describes subjective wage inequality and the demand for redistribution in Austria using individuals' estimates of occupational wages from the International Social Survey Program. Although these estimates differ widely across individuals, the data clearly show that most individuals would like to decrease wage inequality, relative to the level of inequality which they perceive to exist. The empirical analysis also shows that the demand for redistribution is strongly associated not only with variables describing self-interested motives for redistribution, but also with perceptions of and social norms with respect to inequality. Further, the demand for redistribution is a strong predictor for whether an individual is supportive of redistribution by the state. On the other hand, however, I find almost no evidence for an empirical association between the demand for redistribution and individuals' party identification.subjective inequality measures, demand for redistribution, support for the welfare state, party identification

Social Preferences on Public Intervention: an empirical investigation based on French Data

In this paper we examine the support given by French households to public intervention for reducing inequalities and improving well-being of the low-income classes. We first discuss to what extent the model of self interest could be relied upon when one wants to take into account social norms to explain the individual demand for redistribution. We find that social beliefs matter for explaining the individual attitudes towards public intervention. We find also that the support given to redistribution can increase or decrease depending on the interaction between reciprocity norms and beliefs about causes of poverty.

In the Eye of the Beholder: Subjective Inequality Measures and the Demand for Redistribution

This paper presents a simple conceptual framework intended for describing individuals’ subjective evaluations of occupational wage inequality and their demand for redistribution. Most importantly, the framework explicitly allows for the distinction between individuals’ perceptions and their normative beliefs. I illustrate the framework using Swiss survey data from the International Social Survey Program. While most individuals accept quite large wage differentials across occupations, they also prefer a lower level of overall wage inequality than what they perceive to exist. Consistent with previous evidence, the empirical analysis also shows that financial self-interest, social norms about distributive justice and perceptions of how wages are determined in reality all simultaneously influence the demand for redistribution. Finally, I show that subjective inequality measures and the demand for redistribution are substantially significant predictors of both individuals’ support for government intervention and their party identification. This result provides indirect evidence on the presumed link between perceptions and beliefs on the one hand and political outcomes on the other hand.Subjective inequality measures, demand for redistribution, distributive justice, party identification, support for the welfare state

Preferences for redistribution : an empirical analysis

People's preferences for state intervention in social policies vary. A cross-section analysis on individual-level survey data is conducted here to highlight the link between the economic position of agents and their specific demand for redistribution. Controlling for a number of factors usually found to affect individual preferences in the literature, the egoistic motives for redistribution are taken seriously and this article focuses on the role played by the occupational status of individuals in shaping their preferences. Thus, the relative importance of economic factors in terms of current and expected gains is estimated, taking into account individuals' experience of social mobility and risk aversion. Furthermore, the research presented here identifies which socio-political groups may be formed on the basis of their preferences for redistribution.Redistribution, occupation, social mobility, ordered logit regression.

What’s the Monetary Value of Distributive Justice?

This paper proposes a model that can be implemented to estimate the willingness to pay for distributive justice. A formula is derived that allows one to recover the willingness to pay for distributive justice from the estimated coefficients of a probit regression and fiscal data. Using this formula and data from a 1998 Gallup Social Audit, we find that the monetary value of justice in the United States is about one fifth of GDP. We find no evidence that the value of justice varies across types of people.distributive justice, governmental redistribution, fairness

In the Eye of the Beholder: Subjective Inequality Measures and the Demand for Redistribution

This paper presents a simple conceptual framework intended for describing individuals' subjective evaluations of occupational wage inequality and their demand for redistribution. Most importantly, the framework explicitly allows for the distinction between individuals' perceptions and their normative beliefs. I illustrate the framework using Swiss survey data from the International Social Survey Program. While most individuals accept quite large wage differentials across occupations, they also prefer a lower level of overall wage inequality than what they perceive to exist. Consistent with previous evidence, the empirical analysis also shows that financial self-interest, social norms about distributive justice and perceptions of how wages are determined in reality all simultaneously influence the demand for redistribution. Finally, I show that subjective inequality measures and the demand for redistribution are substantially significant predictors of both individuals' support for government intervention and their party identification. This result provides indirect evidence on the presumed link between perceptions and beliefs on the one hand and political outcomes on the other hand.subjective inequality measures, demand for redistribution, distributive justice, party identification, support for the welfare state

Preferences for redistribution around the world

Gender, income, education and self-employment are robust predictors for individual support for redistribution in the OECD. In addition, considerations of social status, the fairness of the allocation mechanism, perceived moral worth of the poor and individual autonomy are important. The results for the OECD are compared to those for a large sample of non-OECD countries which also include less developed economies. Neither gender, nor self-employment, nor fairness considerations exhibit a robust association with preferences for redistribution. However, education, income, individual autonomy and moral worth of the poor remain important determinants. On average, preferences for redistribution indicate that within the OECD, there is no desire to change redistributive policies. In contrast, in the sample of non-OECD countries, on average there is a desire to redistribute less. --preferences for redistribution,social rivalry effect,social identity,survey data,World Values Survey