Bringing existing inequality in South Africa (high) and Switzerland (low) to the lab, we study how people's preferences for redistribution change with the level of income inequality, income mobility, uncertainty of initial income positions, source of income (random or based on real-effort). We...

We study in the laboratory how people's preferences for redistribution change with the level of income inequality, income mobility, uncertainty of initial income positions, and source of income (random or real-effort based). We find that uncertainty and overconfidence undermine the demand for...