Problems of equity in the welfare state: taxation, social welfare transfers and the fairness of one's income from employment The article discusses the conflict of goals between fair compensation for performance and equitable support based on need in modern welfare states, which is a subject of...

We document a negative relationship between population size and inequality in the cross-country data. We propose an explanation built on the existence of a size effect in the political economy of redistribution, particularly in the presence of different channels of popular request for...

We design an experiment to study the effects of social identity on preferences over redistribution. The experiment highlights the trade-off between social identity concerns and maximization of monetary payoffs. Subjects belonging to two distinct natural groups are randomly assigned gross incomes...

We provide theoretical conjectures about and experimental evidence on the emergence of redistributive societies. Individuals first vote on a distribution rule with their feet and then invest and redistribute total income according to the chosen rule. We vary the individuals’ information about...

In this paper we analyse how fairness considerations, in particular considerations of just income distribution, affect whether or not people find tax evasion justifiable and their willingness to evade taxes. Using data from the Norwegian “Hidden Labour Market Survey” we show that individuals...

The literature shows that when a society believes that wealth is determined by random “luck” rather than by merit, it demands more redistribution. Adverse shocks, like earthquakes, strengthen the belief that random “bad luck” can frustrate the outcomes achieved with merit. We...

This essay revisits certain basic features of tax systems as they relate to redistribution. It focuses on how the actual differences between proportional and graduated taxes with regard to redistribution diverge in important ways from what many believe or implicitly assume. The analysis seeks to...

Opportunity sets are defined by taking account of budgetary, institutional and legal constraints. Then a cardinal measure of freedom is proposed which is apt to interpersonal comparisons of opportunity sets. Individual choice freedom may expand when a new good is publicly provided free or at a...

This paper examines how people redistribute income when there is uncertainty about the role luck plays in determining opportunities and outcomes. We introduce a portable experimental method that generates exogenous variation in the probability that real workers' earnings are due to luck, while...

It is not straightforward to define the ethics of responsibility in cases where the consequences of changes in factors within our control are partly determined by factors beyond our control. In this paper, we suggest that one plausible view is to keep us responsible for the parts of the...