The purpose of this paper is twofold. We first develop a contractarian theory of redistribution. The existence of rules … of redistribution is explained without any recourse to the risk-aversion of individuals. Hence, we depart from the … standard legitimization of redistribution as fundamental insurance and interpret it as stemming from a principle of reciprocity …

decay over time. In a new setup we introduce non-enforceable sharing rules, as requests, in a repeated redistribution game …

the reasons for being poor. We develop and test a theo-ry about support for redistribution in the presence of target …-specific beliefs about the causes of low and high incomes. Our theory predicts that target-specific beliefs about the poor matter most … welfare recipients supports our theory. We also find, in theory, the ex-istence of a moral release equilibrium in which the …