Do Free Choice and Control Affect Individual Preferences for Redistribution? Evidence from a Sample of 74 Countries

Why do some people believe that social mobility may result in a fair distribution of income? We hypothesize that people who enjoy higher levels of free choice and control over life outcomes are more likely to consider the income distribution process to be fair, and as a consequence be less supportive of redistribution. We test this claim using a triangular system to endogenize fairness in the process that determines income distribution. The empirical results support our hypothesis. Our findings represent a development in the empirical literature on the determinants of people's preferences concerning income redistribution, in that until now analysis has generally treated the level of fairness in social mobility exogenously