In a classic result, Jakobsson (1976) and Fellman (1976) showed that average-rate progressive, and only average-rate progressive, income taxes reduce income inequality. Carbonell-Nicolau and Llavador (2018) extended this result to the case of endogenous income, showing that marginal-rate...

We analyze the roots of politicians' preferences for redistribution by exploring whether early life experiences have persistent, long-run effects on U.S. Members of Congress' voting records. We study whether having experienced an economic recession during early adulthood affected their positions...

This paper uses the 19th century concern with “the social question” as a vehicle to explore how the theories we use can shape, for better or for worse, our insights into our subjects of interest. Contemporary thinking mostly channels the social question into a focus on inequality in the...

An original method to find the shape of favored redistributions is presented, which is in turn used to assess the political acceptability of the optimal tax theory. Two surveys have been conducted in 2016 to quantify French preferences for income redistribution. In the first survey, respondents...

Redistribution across individuals in a one-year-period framework is an empirically intensely studied question. However, a substantial share of annual redistribution might turn out to serve individual insurance in a longer perspective. In particular, public pensions, that smooth incomes over the...

Survey evidence shows that the magnitude of the tax liability plays a role in value judgements about which groups deserve tax breaks. We demonstrate that the German tax-transfer system conflicts with a welfarist inequality averse social planner. It is consistent with a planner who is averse to...

Forty-two percent of Americans give different answers when asked, respectively, about the reasons for being rich and the reasons for being poor. We develop and test a theory about support for redistribution in the presence of target-specific beliefs about the causes of low and high incomes. Our...

Are differences in preferences for redistribution between right and left wing voters amplified because of misperceptions of inequality? To answer this question, we conduct a nationally representative, randomized survey experiment of 2,584 Australians in which respondents either received...

We study the distribution of income across Indian states for 2014-19 and find significant heterogeneity in income inequality. Particularly concerning in terms of high inequality are states of Uttar Pradesh, Telangana, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Gujarat, Punjab, and Haryana –...

I study the effects of neighborhoods on perceived inequality and preferences for redistribution. Using administrative data on the universe of dwellings and real estate transactions in Barcelona (Spain), I construct a novel measure of local inequality — the Local Neighborhood Gini (LNG). The...