Inequality of Opportunity and Income Redistribution

Marcel Preuss, Germán Reyes, Jason Somerville and Joy Wu
Additional contact information
Marcel Preuss: Cornell University
Jason Somerville: Federal Reserve Bank of New York
Joy Wu: Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München (LMU Munich)

CEDLAS, Working Papers from CEDLAS, Universidad Nacional de La Plata

Abstract: We examine how people redistribute income when there is uncertainty about the role luck plays in determining opportunities and outcomes. We elicit redistribution decisions from a U.S.- representative sample who observe worker outcomes and whether luck magnified workers’ effort (“lucky opportunities”) or determined workers’ income directly (“lucky outcomes”). We find that participants redistribute less and are less reactive to changes in the importance of luck in environments with lucky opportunities. Our findings have implications for models that seek to understand and predict redistribution attitudes, and help to explain the gap between lab evidence on support for redistribution and U.S. inequality trends.

JEL-codes: C91 D63 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 60 pages
Date: 2023-01
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-exp and nep-ltv
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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Related works:
Working Paper: Inequality of Opportunity and Income Redistribution (2024)
Working Paper: Inequality of Opportunity and Income Redistribution (2024)
Working Paper: Inequality of Opportunity and Income Redistribution (2023)
Working Paper: Inequality of Opportunity and Income Redistribution (2022)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:dls:wpaper:0309

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