Tesis sobre el tema "Preferences for redistribution"

The dissertation explores individuals' attitudes towards redistribution. Chapter 1 and Chapter 2 present two dynamic theoretical models that are used to analyze the interrelation between education decisions and preferences for redistribution. Chapter 3 uses an empirical approach to study the relationship between segregation, which is measured by assortative mating, and the demand for redistribution
La tesis explora las actitudes de los individuos hacia la redistribución. Los capítulos 1 y 2 presentan dos modelos teóricos dinámicos que se utilizan para analizar la interrelación entre las decisiones educativas y las preferencias de redistribución. El Capítulo 3 utiliza un enfoque empírico para estudiar la relación entre la segregación, que se mide mediante el apareamiento selectivo, y la demanda de redistribución

This dissertation investigates the dynamics of mass attitudes toward redistributive social policies in post-industrial democracies: How have these attitudes changed over time? What factors and mechanisms drive these changes? According to workhorse models in political economy, as inequality increases, support for redistributive social policies should also increase, especially among those most likely to benefit from them. Yet, despite a sharp growth in income inequality in the United States and the United Kingdom since the 1970's, there is no evidence that attitudinal trends match these predictions. Drawing from findings in the behavioral sciences on mental processes of attitude formation and on the role of other-oriented concerns, I argue that political economy's workhorse models perform well only under specific scope conditions. Once these conditions are accounted for, observed trends become less puzzling. First, workhorse models only capture one component of demand for redistribution, namely support for redistribution conceived as taking from the "rich" (redistribution from), and ignore a separate component, support for redistribution conceived as giving to the "poor" (redistribution to). These two facets of redistribution, I argue, prime different individual motives: self-interested income maximization on the one hand, and other-oriented social affinity with welfare beneficiaries on the other, which is shaped by social ranking and non-economic moral dispositions. Second, attitudinal change that matches these models' predictions is conditional on whether elites politicize redistributive issues. The nature and structure of the options available in one's political environment impact the kind of choices citizens make, i.e. the motives that guide attitude formation. I show how elite competition over distinct redistributive agendas increases the likelihood that individuals will translate their economic circumstances into support for, or opposition to, redistribution. Through a context-sensitive analysis of longitudinal survey data, I show how most of the action in the UK and the US has happened through other-oriented motives. The decline in the predictive power of income in these countries, has been mirrored in both countries by an increase in the predictive power of moral values. Differences in the choice sets provided by elite-level electoral competition help explain how this plays out differently on each side of the Atlantic.

L’objectiu d’aquesta tesi és contribuir a la comprensió de com les preferències de la ciutadania cap a la redistribució es poden veure afectades per un context de crisi econòmica. L’anàlisi se centra en dos mecanismes pels quals les crisis poden influencia les preferències cap a la redistribució: els canvis en la situació econòmica personal i l’activació consideracions de justícia específicament relacionades amb el context de crisi. El primer capítol empíric de la tesi se centra en l’impacte de les experiències personals amb la crisi sobre les preferències dels individus per un tipus de política redistributiva en concret: la progressivitat fiscal. Utilitzo dades originals d’una enquesta elaborada en nou països europeus després de la gran crisi de 2008. Els resultats mostren que les preferències redistributives dels ciutadans europeus correlacionaven amb la seva experiència amb la crisi. Aquells que expressaven major privació relativa retrospectiva mostraven major suport per la progressivitat fiscal. De totes formes, els resultats mostren que l’associació era moderada. En part perquè els efectes dels canvis en la situació econòmica personal no van ser homogenis. Entre aquells més afectats per la crisi, només els ciutadans de dretes i aquells que eren pessimistes sobre el seu futur econòmic mostraven un major suport per la progressivitat fiscal. Al segon i tercer capítols empírics de la tesi analitzo com les consideracions de justícia sobre qui i per què va patir les conseqüències econòmiques de la crisi influeixen les preferències per la redistribució dels ciutadans. En primer lloc, a través d’un experiment de laboratori amb incentius econòmics demostro que les consideracions de justícia basades en si les persones pateixen una pèrdua d’ingressos a causa de factors sota o aliens al control individual influeixen en el suport a la redistribució. Amb aquest experiment també demostro que les consideracions de justícia continuen tenint importància quan s’introdueixen altres motivacions com l’interès personal i la seguretat econòmica. L’experiment de laboratori em permet provar el mecanisme en un context amb una alta validesa interna. Per comprovar si les consideracions de justícia específicament referides a la situació de la crisi poden influir el suport ciutadà a la redistribució en un entorn més realista i contextualment ric, he utilitzat un experiment d’enquesta. Els tractaments feien referències directes a la crisi econòmica i les seves conseqüències. A través d’aquest experiment analitzo si els marcs conceptuals que atribuïen les causes de patir els efectes de la crisi a factors sota o més enllà del control individual van afectar el suport popular a la redistribució cap als perdedors de crisis després de la Gran Recessió. Curiosament, els resultats mostren que els marcs conceptuals que atribuïen el fet de patir els efectes negatius de la crisi a factors més enllà del control individual no van augmentar significativament el suport a la redistribució. Per contra, els marcs que atribuïen l’impacte de la crisi a un dels factors sota control individual (comportament especulatiu en el passat) si van reduir el suport a la redistribució. En conjunt, la tesi mostra que un context de crisi econòmica pot influir en les preferències per la redistribució de la ciutadania. De totes formes, no hem d’esperar que les crisis econòmiques tinguin efectes automàtics i homogenis sobre aquestes preferències. D’una banda, he mostrat que les experiències personals amb la crisi poden afectar els nivells de suport a la redistribució, però l’efecte està condicionat per les posicions ideològiques i les expectatives econòmiques dels individus. A més, he demostrat que no només les circumstàncies materials personals poden influir en les preferències per la redistribució. La interpretació que fan els individus de la crisi i els seus efectes també pot influir en el seu suport a la redistribució. Això obre les portes a la influència política de les elits polítiques a través de pràctiques de discursives i l’ús de marcs conceptuals específics.
The aim of this thesis is to contribute to the understanding of how public preferences for redistribution can be affected by contexts of economic crisis. The analysis is focussed on two different mechanisms by which crises can influence redistributive preferences: changes in personal economic circumstances and the activation of crisis-specific fairness considerations. The first empirical chapter of the thesis is focussed on the impact of personal experiences with the crisis on individuals’ preferences for a very specific redistributive policy: progressive taxation. I use original data from a survey conducted in nine European countries in the aftermath of the Great Recession. The results show that European citizens’ redistributive preferences correlated with their personal experience with the crisis. Those who reported higher retrospective relative deprivation tended to show higher support for progressive taxation. Nevertheless, results also show that the aggregate association was moderate. Partly because the effects of changes in personal economic circumstances were not homogeneous. Among those who were hit by the crisis, only right-leaning citizens and those who were pessimistic about their personal economic prospects showed increased support for tax progressivity. In the second and third empirical chapters of the thesis I analyse how fairness considerations relative to who and why suffered the negative economic consequences of crisis influence citizens’ redistributive preferences. Firstly, using an economically incentivised laboratory experiment I show that fairness considerations based on whether individuals suffered an income-loss due to factors under or beyond the individual control influence individuals’ support for redistribution. With this experiment I also show that fairness considerations continue to matter when self-interest and insurance motives are primed. The lab experiment allows me to test the mechanism in a context with high internal validity. To test whether crisis-specific fairness considerations can influence public’s support for redistribution in a more realistic and contextually rich setting I relied on a vignette-based survey experiment. The treatments made direct references to the economic crisis and its consequences. Through this experiment I analyse whether frames attributing the causes of being affected by the crisis to factors under or beyond individual control affected people’s support for redistribution towards crisis losers in the aftermath of the Great Recession. Interestingly, the results show that frames attributing being affected by the crisis to factors beyond individual control did not significantly increase support for redistribution. Contrarily, frames attributing the crisis impact to one of the factors under the individual control (past speculative behaviour) did reduce support for redistribution. Overall, the thesis shows that a context of economic crisis can influence citizens’ preferences for redistribution. However, we should not expect recessions to have automatic and homogeneous effects on citizens’ redistributive preferences. On one hand, I show that personal experiences with the crisis can affect the levels of support for redistribution, but the effect is conditional to individuals’ ideological standings and economic expectations. Additionally, I have shown that not only personal material circumstances can influence people’s redistributive preferences. Their interpretation of the crisis and its effects can also influence their support for redistribution. This opens the door for political influence of political elites through framing practices.

While the transition to democracy in South Africa extended civil and political rights and freedoms to all South Africans, there has been disagreement over the preferred nature and scope of social rights within post-apartheid society, reflecting debates over the trajectory of economic policy. Appreciable developmental gains have been made by the state over the last quarter-century, yet the challenges of poverty, unemployment and inequality persist, coupled with mounting popular discontent with the pace of transformation and political accountability. This has led to fundamental questions about social justice, restitution, and the kind of society we wish to promote. Appeals for a more inclusive, transformative social policy have also emerged, arguing that a wider vision of society is required involving multiple government responsibilities and informed by an ethic of equality and social solidarity. Against this background, in this thesis I study the views of the South African public towards economic inequality, general preferences for government-led redistribution, as well as support for social policies intended to promote racial and economic transformation. The research has been guided by several overarching questions: To what extent do South Africans share common general beliefs about material inequality? Does the public exhibit a preference for government redistribution in principle? And how unified or polarised are South Africans in their support for specific redress policies in the country? Responding to these questions has been achieved by drawing on unique, nationally representative data from the South African Social Attitudes Survey (SASAS), which has enabled me to chart social attitudes over a period of almost fifteen years between late 2003 and early 2017. Use has also been made of social citizenship as a guiding conceptual framework to understanding social policy predispositions and analysing attitudinal change. The results demonstrate that the public is united in its awareness of and deep concern about economic inequality. Since the early 2000s, a significant majority has consistently expressed the view that the income gap in the country is too large, articulated a strong preference for a more equitable social structure, and acknowledged the class and social tensions that economic inequality has produced. There is also a preference for a narrowing of earnings disparities, a more generous minimum wage, and regulatory limits on executive pay. While this suggests a desire for fair and legitimate remuneration, the analysis also reveals that South Africans are willing to tolerate fairly high levels of inequality. Nonetheless, these beliefs are generally interpreted as a desire for a more equitable and fair society. This preference for change is reflected in a fairly strong belief that government should assume responsibility for reducing material disparities. One’s social position, mobility history, awareness of inequality, political leaning and racial attitudes all have a bearing on how weak and strong this predisposition is, but the normative demand for political redistribution remains fairly widely shared irrespective of these individual traits. Greater polarisation is however evident with respect to redistributive social policy, especially measures designed to overcome historical racial injustice (affirmative action, sports quotas, and land reform). These intergroup differences converge considerably when referring to class-based policy measures. One surprising finding is the evidence that South Africa’s youngest generation, the so-called ‘Born Frees’, tend to adopt a similar predisposition to redress policy as older generations, thus confounding expectations of a post-apartheid value change. I conclude by arguing that there seems to be a firmer basis for a social compact about preferences for interventions designed to produce a more just society than is typically assumed. Intractably high levels of economic inequality during the country’s first quarter-century of democracy is resulting in a growing recognition of the need for a stronger policy emphasis on economic inequality in South Africa over coming decades if the vision enshrined in the Freedom Charter and the Constitution is to be realised. South Africans may not be able to fully agree about the specific elements that constitute a socially just response to economic inequality. Yet, the common identification of and concern with redressable injustice, coupled with a broad-based commitment to government redistribution and classbased social policies, could serve as a foundation on which to rekindle the solidaristic spirit of 1994 and forge progress towards a more equitable society.

Despite considerable research efforts, the relationship between inequality and demand for redistribution remains a highly contested topic within comparative political economy. This paper argues that a central yet widely overlooked mechanism linking macro-level income inequality to preferences for redistribution has to with the micro-level implications of certain externalities of inequality. Focusing on fear of crime, as one such externality, I argue that because (i) in- equality and crime are positively related, and (ii) because crime and fear of crime have a negative effect in individual utility, it follows that increasing in- equality should have a positive effect on support for redistribution. Importantly, however, the argument of this paper also recognises that redistribution is but one of several means through which a concern about crime can be addressed, with the most relevant alternatives being increased policing and harsher punitive measures. Drawing on literatures in criminology and political sociology, I theorise that a key determinant of this choice | between redistribution and policing/punishment as alternative approaches to dealing with crime | is the level of ethnic heterogeneity in the population. Taken together, therefore, this paper's argument implies that inequality will have differential effects on support for redistribution in different contexts: in cases where the population is homogenous, fear of crime - and by consequence inequality - will boost demand for redistribution, whilst no such effects will follow in contexts of high heterogeneity. Using a two-step statistical methodology, I analyse Eurobarometer and ESS data from 21 OECD countries and find persuasive empirical support for my theoretical expectations. Fear of crime is more strongly associated to support for redistribution when the level of population heterogeneity remains low, whilst the opposite holds true for the relationship between fear of crime and support for policing and punishment.

The purpose of this dissertation is to identify the impact of moral emotions (sympathy and empathy) and religious education on individual behavior. This dissertation is divided into three main chapters. The first chapter examines the effect of sympathy and empathy on tax compliance. We run a series of experiments in which we employ methods such as priming, the Davis Empathic Concern scale, and questions about frequency of prosocial behaviors in the past year in order to promote and to identify empathy and sympathy in subjects. We observe the subjects’ decisions in a series of one-shot tax compliance game presented at once and with no immediate feedback. Our results suggest that the presence and/or the promotion of sympathy in most cases encourage tax compliance. The second chapter takes into consideration religious schooling as a way of helping the development of religiosity or morality on individuals. Our intent is to investigate the effect of religious education on charitable donations in adulthood. Our empirical analysis is based on data from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics dataset. Our estimation results indicate that there is a positive effect of religious education on donations to secular and religious organizations. The third chapter explores the hypothesis that sympathetic individuals are more likely to support income redistribution because they believe that the poor may benefit from this policy. We use data from the General Social Survey to estimate support for income distribution. Our results suggest that some measures of sympathy have a positive effect on support for redistribution. Across all three main chapters, we find that sympathy has mostly small and positive effects on the types of behavior examined in this dissertation, although we are not able to determine the impact of religious education on charitable donations. Despite the sometimes weak results of this research caused by the limitations of the available data and the complexity of the issues studied, we believe that the development of these moral emotions is likely to generate benefits to society.

Les quatre chapitres de cette thèse visent à mieux comprendre l'attitude des citoyens vis-à-vis des politiques environnementales. Le premier chapitre évalue l’impact redistributif de la taxe carbone française. Il montre que la taxe carbone est régressive, mais pourrait être rendue progressive si son revenu était retourné de manière uniforme à tous les ménages. Toutefois, la politique générerait d’importants effets redistributifs horizontaux et pénaliserait une part importante des ménages modestes. A partir d’une nouvelle enquête sur un échantillon représentatif, le deuxième chapitre co-écrit avec Adrien Fabre montre que les Français sont opposés à la taxe carbone même si le revenu leur est reversé uniformément. Ce rejet va de pair avec des perceptions pessimistes fortement ancrées des effets de la politique, que l’on peut expliquer par la défiance des répondants. Notre analyse montre toutefois que lorsque les ménages sont convaincus des effets objectifs de la politique - sur leur pouvoir d'achat, sur l'environnement, et en termes redistributifs - leur soutien augmente très largement. Le troisième chapitre, basé sur la même enquête, est plus descriptif. Il a pour objectif d’évaluer l’attitude des Français vis-à-vis du changement climatique, et les perspectives de la politique climatique française après la crise des Gilets Jaunes. Le quatrième chapitre, plus théorique, étudie à partir d’un modèle comment les catastrophes environnementales jouent sur les décisions de consommation, d'investissement, et de protection de l'environnement en fonction de l'attitude des individus face au risque
The four chapters of this thesis aim to better understand citizens' attitudes towards environmental policies. The first chapter assesses the redistributive impact of the French carbon tax. It shows that the carbon tax is regressive, but could be made progressive if its revenue were returned uniformly to all households. However, the policy would generate significant horizontal redistributive effects and penalize a large share of modest households. Based on a new survey with a large representative sample, the second chapter co-authored with Adrien Fabre shows that the French are opposed to the carbon tax even if its revenue is returned to them uniformly. This rejection goes hand in hand with strongly rooted pessimistic perceptions of the effects of the policy, which can be explained by the respondents' mistrust. Our analysis shows, however, that when households are convinced of the objective effects of the policy - on their purchasing power, on the environment, and in redistributive terms - their support increases very significantly. The third chapter, based on the same survey, is more descriptive. It aims to assess French attitudes towards climate change and the prospects for French climate policy after the Yellow Vest crisis. The fourth chapter, more theoretical, uses a model to study how environmental disasters affect consumption, investment and environmental protection decisions according to people's attitude to risk

Esta tesis se estructura en base a la noción de igualdad de oportunidades, concepto inicialmente propuesto por Arneson (1989), cuyas bases filosóficas se encuentran profundamente influidas por los planteos de Rawls (1971). Desde esta perspectiva no hay justificación alguna para la existencia de circunstancias diferenciadoras originadas por la suerte o la dotación natural, mientras que todo lo que se encuentre bajo control de la persona es responsabilidad del individuo y la sociedad no debería preocuparse por establecer mecanismos compensadores. En este sentido Roemer (1998) señala que la política pública debe encargarse de nivelar el campo de juego igualando oportunidades, equiparando las condiciones de partida de las personas para poder acceder a una ventaja. En los distintos capítulos de esta tesis se busca contribuir en distintas esferas de este campo, brindando evidencia empírica para el caso uruguayo. En la tesis se estudia el vínculo entre la igualdad de oportunidades y las políticas públicas. De forma más explícita en unos casos y de forma indirecta en otros, las políticas públicas que se analizan ponen foco en la educación. Se considera un programa de transferencia de ingresos, el Plan de Atención a la Emergencia Social (PANES, por sus siglas en español), y una política orientada a la primera infancia basada en el incremento de plazas educativas públicas. En la literatura revisada los estudios que vinculan de forma causal políticas públicas focalizadas con la desigualdad de oportunidades son escasos (Ham, 2010; Van der gaer, 2011), mayor es la literatura que se centra en el análisis de los impactos de las políticas orientadas a la primera infancia (por ejemplo, Baker et al, 2008; Urzúa & Veramendi, 2011; Conti & Heckman, 2012; Felfe & Lalive, 2014). En este último caso el énfasis en los efectos sobre la igualdad de oportunidades es menor, en tanto no es posible atribuir responsabilidades a los niños por sus desempeños. No obstante, en Andreoli, Havnes & Lefranc (2014) se realiza un esfuerzo por vincular la literatura basada en la igualdad de oportunidades y la expansión de centros educativos dirigidos a la primera infancia. El restante capítulo se centra en el estudios de las preferencias por políticas redistributivas considerando distintos enfoques normativos que se han utilizado para medir igualdad de oportunidades. También son varios los trabajos que intentan entender el papel que desempeñan en las mencionadas preferencias las percepciones de justicia de los individuos (Fong, 2001; Alesina y Angeletos, 2005; Alesina y Giuliano, 2009). Se intenta vincular con mayor precisión estas dos esferas, las cuales presentan un fuerte anclaje subjetivo. En concreto, se estudia en qué medida las preferencias por la redistribución pueden quedar determinadas por percepciones individuales heterogéneas de la igualdad de oportunidades. Se pone particular énfasis en los argumentos teóricos que sirve de base para que las percepciones de justicia influyan en la utilidad de los individuos, donde se ven reflejadas las preferencias por la redistribución. A diferencias de los trabajos que le anteceden, y que se centran en explicaciones basadas en el altruismo de las personas, en este capítulo el argumento se desplaza hacia la reciprocidad generada a partir de la interacción entre los individuos. Este último elemento asocia el papel jugado por el sentido de justicia a la identidad de las personas (Akerlof y Kranton, 2010), y por ende es formado a partir de la interacción con el grupo de pares.
This thesis is structured around the notion of equal opportunities, a concept first proposed by Arneson (1989), whose philosophical foundations are deeply influenced by the proposals of Rawls (1971). From this perspective there is no justification for the existence of differentiating circumstances arising from luck or natural endowment, while everything which is under the control of the person is the responsibility of the individual and society should not concern itself with establishing compensatory mechanisms. In this sense, Roemer (1998) notes that public policy should be responsible for leveling the playing field by equaling the opportunities and starting conditions of the people in order to be able to access an advantage. In the different chapters of this thesis I aim to contribute to different areas of this field by providing empirical evidence for the case of Uruguay. I focus on the link between equality of opportunities and public policy. The public policies that are analyzed put a focus on education, explicitly in some cases and indirectly in others. I consider an income transfer program, the Plan de Atención Nacional a la Emergencia Social (PANES), and a policy oriented to early childhood based on increasing places in public schools. In the literature reviewed the studies that casually link targeted public policies with inequality of opportunities are scarce (Ham, 2010; Van der gaer, 2011), with a greater number of studies focusing on analyzing the impact of policies oriented to early childhood (for example, Baker et al, 2008; Urzúa & Veramendi, 2011; Conti & Heckman, 2012; Felfe & Lalive, 2014). In the latter case there is less emphasis on the effects on equality of opportunities, so it is not possible to attribute responsibility to the children for their performance. However, in Andreoli, Havnes & Lefranc (2014) an effort was made to link the literature based on equality of opportunities and the expansion of public schools aimed at early childhood. The remaining chapter focuses on the study of preferences for redistributive policies considering different normative approaches that have been used to measure equality of opportunity. There are also several papers that have attempted to understand the role played by the perceptions of fairness of individuals in the aforementioned preferences (Fong, 2001; Alesina and Angeletos, 2005; Alesina and Giuliano, 2009). I attempt to link these two areas, which have a string subjective element, with greater precision. Specifically, I study the extent to which preferences for redistribution may be determined by heterogeneous individual perceptions about inequality of opportunity. Particular emphasis is placed on the theoretical arguments underlying the idea that perceptions of fairness influence the utility of individuals, where they see their preferences for redistribution reflected. Unlike the chapters which precede it, and which focus on explanations based on the altruism of people, in this chapter the argument shifts towards the reciprocity generated by the interaction among individuals. This last element associates the role played by the sense of fairness with the identity of the people (Akerlof and Kranton, 2010), and is therefore formed from the interaction with the peer group.

This Ph.D. thesis contains four independent essays. The essays are summarized as follows. Essay I: Status quos and the prosociality of intuitive decision making This study investigates how the prosociality of intuitive choices depends on the presence of a status quo. I present the results of a dictator game experiment with a non-student sample. The dictator game is a choice between a selfish option and a fair and efficient option, and has either no status quo, a selfish status quo or a fair status quo. Intuitive choices are elicited in two ways, by an exogenous variation in time pressure and by measuring response times. I find that time pressure decreases the share of fair choices in decisions without a status quo, but has no effect in the presence of a status quo. Fair and selfish choices have equal response times in a decision without a status quo, whereas the status quo option is always chosen faster, i.e. fast choices are fair under a fair status quo and selfish under a selfish status quo. This suggests that the decision context critically affects whether intuitive choices are prosocial or selfish. Essay II: Risk preferences and the demand for redistribution If individuals view redistributive policy as an insurance against future negative economic shocks, then the demand for redistribution increases in individual risk aversion. We provide a direct test of the correlation between the demand for redistribution and individual risk aversion in a customized survey and find that they are strongly and robustly positively correlated: more risk averse people demand more redistribution. We also replicate the results from previous literature and, on the one hand, find that the demand for redistribution is positively correlated with altruism, the belief that individual economic success is the result of luck rather than effort, a working-class parental background and downward mobility experience and expectations. On the other hand, preferences for redistribution are negatively correlated with income, a conservative political ideology and upward mobility experience and expectations. The magnitude of the correlation between risk aversion and the demand for redistribution is comparable to the magnitude of these previously identified, and here replicated, correlates.  Essay III: Omission effects in trolley problems with economic outcomes This paper tests how ethical views and hypothetical choices in a trolley problem with economic outcomes depend on whether an outcome is the result of an action or an omission. In a vignette experiment, subjects read about a spectator that harms one person in order to save five others from harm either by taking an action or by omission, whereas the outcomes are either death or loss of property. The results show that the distinction between harmful actions and harmful omissions is significantly smaller in the economic domain, suggesting that omission effects in trolley problems are domain-specific. A comparison of moral views about harmful actions across outcome domains shows that this difference is driven by subjects being more outcome-focused when property rather than lives are at stake.  Essay IV: Is there an omission effect in prosocial behavior? We investigate whether individuals are more prone to act selfishly if they can passively allow for an outcome to be implemented (omission) rather than having to make an active choice (commission). In most settings, active and passive choice alternatives differ in terms of factors such as the presence of a suggested option, costs of taking an action, and awareness. We isolate the omission effect from confounding factors in two experiments, and find no evidence that the distinction between active and passive choices has an independent effect on the propensity to implement selfish outcomes. This suggests that increased selfishness through omission, as observed in various economic choice situations, is driven by other factors than a preference for selfish omissions.

This dissertation considers how income inequality affects attitudes towards tax policies and income redistribution. In the first paper, I adopt traditional models of the relationship between income inequality and policy preferences to incorporate income volatility. I find that greater income volatility can lead voters to prefer less progressive taxes depending on the distribution of the income shocks. Because income volatility and inequality are positively correlated, with each potentially having an opposite effect on public opinion, my model predicts that support for increasing taxes on upper incomes may not rise in the face of growing income inequality. In the second paper, I estimate the casual effect of short term, temporary changes in household income on individuals' tax progressivity preferences through a series survey experiments. I find evidence that volatility does in fact diminish preferences for tax progressivity. Respondents preferred significantly less progressive taxes when described households that had more volatile incomes regardless of the pattern of volatility over time. For the third and final paper, I develop a new, more powerful permutation procedure for analyzing two-way factorial experiments. The method is a non-parametric alternative to traditional analysis of variance (ANOVA). In Monte Carlo simulations, the procedure was better able to disentangle main factor and interaction effects than regression-based ANOVA tests, particularly when the design was imbalanced. I developed the procedure for use in the analysis of the income volatility experiments.

Cette thèse s'intéresse à l'analyse des variables d'opinion. Les opinions couvertes concernent spécifiquement des questions économiques comme le niveau de bien-être, la situation financière, le niveau minimum de revenu nécessaire pour vivre dignement, la préférence pour la redistribution. Le traitement de ces variables d'opinion et leur mise en relation avec les grandeurs économiques traditionnelles comme le niveau de revenu ou sa dynamique nécessitent des techniques micro-économétriques spécifiques. Dans cette thèse, les modèles dynamiques de panel sont utilisés pour étudier la mobilité des revenus et la mobilité des statuts d'emploi. Dans le dernier chapitre, nous discutons également le modèle Tobit dynamique et l'importance des conditions initiales. Dans les modèles de panel, se pose la question du choix entre effet fixe et effet aléatoire. Parce que les variables subjectives sont ordinales et discrètes, les effets fixes sont difficilement identifiables. L'identification des effets aléatoires est moins problématique, mais l'estimation devient pourtant difficile quand la dimension d'intégration augmente. Pour résoudre cela, je l'utilise intensivement les techniques de simulation, soit pour le modèle dynamique multinomial logit, soit pour le modèle dynamique Tobit. La technique de simulation est également appliqué au modèle trivarié probit pour mesurer les corrélations conditionnelles entre trois (ou même plus) variables ordinales
This dissertation studies option variables. These opinions cover specially economic questions such as the level of wellbeing, financial situations, the minimum income question and the preference for redistribution. The treatment of these opinion variables and their relation to conventional economic questions such as income level or dynamics requires the use of special micro-econometric models. In this dissertation, the dynamics panel models are used to study the job status and income mobility. In the 6 chapter, we discuss the dynamic Tobit model with an emphasis on initial conditions. The choice between fixed or random effect is another question. Because subjective variables are ordinal and discrete, the identification of fixed effects is problematic. Random effects are better identified while the estimation difficulty increases with the integration dimension. To solve that, I use intensively simulation method in the study of dynamic multinomial logit model or dynamic tobit model. It is also been applied in the trivariate probit model to measure the conditional correlations among more than 2 ordinal variables

The overall objective of the thesis is to investigate needs and incentives of all income/wealth groups in order to explore ways and means to remedy the excessive economic inequality. A closer examination of individual decisions across richer and poorer households allows us to recognize conflicts of wants, needs and values and subsequently to draw recommendations for future policies. The first chapter examines households' preferences over the redistribution of wealth resources. The preferences of voting households are restricted by agents' present and future resource constraints. The wealth resources vary over the business cycle, which affects the grounds for speculations of voting households. We augment the standard Real-Business-Cycle (RBC) model by the majority voting on lump-sum redistribution employing a balanced government budget. Our findings indicate that for the usual elasticity of labor supply both transfers' level and share of output are procyclical, with the procyclicality increasing in the discrepancy between richer and poorer households. In the second chapter we analytically demonstrate that all economic agents face subsistence costs that hinder economic and financial decisions of the poor. We find that the standard two-asset portfolio-selection model with a time-invariant subsistence component in the common-across agents Stone-Geary utility function is capable of explaining qualitatively and quantitatively three empirical regularities: (i) increasing saving rates in wealth, (ii) rising risky portfolio shares with wealth, (iii) more volatile consumption growth of the richer. On the contrary, "keeping-up-with-the-Joneses" utility with a time-varying weighted mean consumption produces identical saving rates and portfolio asset shares across richer and poorer agents, failing to match the micro data. Finally, in the third chapter we use Epstein-Zin-Weil recursive preferences altered to include subsistence costs, as this form of utility function enables trade-off between stability and safety. We pursue an analytical investigation of a more complex multi-asset portfolio-choice model with perfectly insurable labor risk and no liquidity constraints and find further support of the data evidence. If households' total resources are anticipated to increase over time, poorer agents can afford to gradually escape subsistence concerns by choosing lower saving rates and accepting only minor portfolio risks as their consumption hovers close to the subsistence needs. The calibration part of the model economy shows that analytical results can quantitatively reconcile the data, too.

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Some studies in economics and political science argues that preferences for redistribution are able to explain different redistributive efforts around the world. It is natural to think that the voting decision is the most direct channel to validate this argument. This work provided empirical evidence that there is a correlation between preferences for redistribution and individual voting decision in the United States. First, I present a theoretical model that links party identification with individual self-interest. Based in this model, I use General Social Survey data to assess such relation. The results show that preferences for redistribution are related to party identification and, consequently, related to individual voting decision for redistributive policies. There is also some evidences that this influence is growing in the last decades.
Parte dos estudos em economia e ciência política argumenta que preferências por redistribuição são capazes de explicar os diferentes esforços redistributivos ao redor do mundo. É natural pensar que a decisão de voto é o único canal relevante para que esta argumentação seja válida. Este trabalho buscará evidências empíricas de que haja correlação entre preferências por redistribuição e a decisão individual de voto nos Estados Unidos. Primeiro, apresento um modelo teórico que faz ligação entre a identificação partidária do indivíduo com seus interesses próprios e coletivos. Com base neste modelo, serão usados dados do General Social Survey para encontrar tais relações. Nos resultados encontra-se que as preferências por redistribuição estão relacionadas à identificação partidária e, consequentemente, à decisão de voto por redistribuição. Há também alguma evidência de que esta influência esteja crescendo nas últimas décadas.

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CAPES
A percepção da renda pelos indivíduos influencia suas preferências redistributivas? Proponho verificar se a percepção do nível de renda importa na formação de preferências redistributivas, a partir da análise dos dados disponibilizados no World Values Surveys (2010-2014). O argumento teórico tradicional na Ciência Política caracteriza a relação entre a renda real e a formação de preferências redistributivas como um questionamento central na demanda por redistribuição em governos democráticos. Apesar dessa questão de pesquisa já ser tradicional, proponho que as preferências dos indivíduos, quanto ao papel redistributivo do estado, são pautadas na percepção da desigualdade. Empiricamente, pretendo testar a hipótese de que quanto maior o nível de renda percebida, menor serão as preferências redistributivas com dados para América Latina. Esse trabalho testa a hipótese apresentada através da combinação de estatística descritiva e um modelo de regressão logística ordenada. Os resultados encontrados corroboram com a expectativa da literatura existente de uma relação negativa entre percepção do nível de renda e preferências redistributivas. A probabilidade de ter um apoio a preferências redistributivas é maior entre aqueles que afirmam que o nível de renda percebida é baixo. Não obstante, os efeitos marginais constatam que a probabilidade de ser favorável à redistribuição ainda é expressiva entre aqueles que possuem um nível de renda percebida elevado.
The perception of income by individuals influences their redistributive preferences? I propose to verify if the perception of income level matters in the formation of redistributive preferences, from the analysis of the data available on the World Values Surveys (2010-2014). Traditional Theoretical argument in political science characterizes the relationship between real income and the formation of redistributive preferences as a central question in the demand for redistribution in democratic governments. Although this research question is already traditional, I propose that the preferences of individuals, on the redistributive role of the state, are guided by the perception of inequality. Empirically, I intend to test the hypothesis that the higher the perceived level of income, the lower will be the redistributive preferences with data for Latin America. This work tests the hypothesis presented by combining descriptive statistics and logistic regression model ordered. The results corroborate the expectation of the literature of a negative relationship between perceived level of income and redistributive preferences. The probability of having a support for redistributive preference is higher among those who claim that the perceived income level is low. Nevertheless, the marginal effects find that the probability of being in favor of redistribution is still significant among those with a sense of high income level.

Given the background of rising economic inequalities, the topic has reentered the field of economic science. Yet the problem of how economic inequality is being mediated to the public is not discussed in economics at all, and hardly mentioned in communication studies. Through an analysis of recent empirical studies on the coverage of inequality in the media, we debate the role mass media play as information providers. Assessing the underlying assumptions and the methodological approaches guiding the respective empirical findings, we can highlight the merits of this body of work and identify open questions for further research. The last part of the article provides a discussion of (currently rather neglected) political economy theories that offer rich theoretical approaches to study media, power, and inequality.

碩士
國立臺北大學
財政學系
102
In democratic societies, citizens engaged in political activities such as casting ballots, participating party campaigns, and protesting are essential to reflect preferences for government policies. However, the extent and ways in which citizens’ engagements are subject to various degrees of perceived political efficacy. Therefore, in democratic countries, understanding the determinants of political efficacy is an important issue. Nevertheless, with the rapid advancement of economic development in Taiwan, the problems of income inequality deteriorate over time. This becomes a significant factor for people’s satisfaction toward government’s redistributive policies, and it consequently influences on people’s political efficacy. Using the data drawn from the survey of Taiwan’s Election and Democratization in the year of 2012 (TEDS 2012), this study investigates the influences of people’s perceptions of fairness measured by their preferences for government’s redistributive policies on political efficacy. The empirical results show that preference for welfare policies is negatively associated with both internal and external political efficacy. In contrast, preference for policies of income distribution is negatively correlated with internal political efficacy, but positively correlated with external political efficacy. Moreover, preference for health care policy is negatively associated with internal efficacy. As a result, this may indicate that the decrease in political efficacy caused by the dissatisfaction with government’s redistributive policies could lead to a decline of the willingness of people to participate in politics.

We conduct a randomized control trial to understand how beliefs about intergenerational mobility affect the attitude towards redistribution in Portugal and how information shapes those beliefs and preferences. When compared withFrance, Italy, Sweden, the United Kingdom,and the United States,Portugal hashigherconcerns aboutinequalityandsupportsmoreredistribution.Informationabout lowmobility decreases the perceived chances of getting out of poverty but does not change preferences for redistribution. Contrarily to other countries, beliefs of mobility to the top are not sensitive tothisinformation. When compared withtrue mobility, Portuguese are more pessimistic than Americans and Europeans.

When do individuals feel that economic inequality needs to be corrected through redistributive government policy, such as progressive taxes or social spending? Using a cross-national data set of public opinion across both developing and developed countries, this dissertation finds that political context plays a key role in determining how individuals view economic inequality and their support for redistributive social policy. An overarching theme throughout the dissertation is that political elites are key in making inequality a prominent issue for the public. This is done by framing individual attributes such as income, ethnic identity or geographic local (urban vs. rural) in a way that will either maximize or minimize support for redistribution. When political elites lack incentives to mobilize public opinion on the issue, it becomes unlikely that individual attributes such as income or ethnicity will predict support for redistribution.

Dissertation

Why do some individuals endorse public policies aimed at reducing income inequality while others oppose them? Why is there widespread support for such policies in certain countries, but not in others? This dissertation advances scholarship toward a general theory of support for redistribution by analyzing variation in redistributive attitudes within and across two developing democracies, Argentina and Peru. Support for redistribution is higher in the former country. It examines existing theories based on interests and group identity, explanations whose predictions have been almost exclusively evaluated in the context of advanced industrial democracies. It also introduces and assesses a belief-based explanation that focuses on inequality frames, simplified mental models of the issue of inequality comprised of individuals’ beliefs about the causes of economic outcomes, about the extent to which society provides equal opportunities, and about the nature of wealth accumulation. This dissertation argues that these theories are complementary and identifies the contextual factors that condition the extent to which the considerations emphasized by these accounts inform redistributive attitudes. Interests and group identity are salient in contexts where individuals have access to material and informational resources that make them more cognizant of their position along economic and ethnic cleavages. In contrast, inequality frames inform redistributive attitudes regardless of context because of their inside-the-head nature. This study shows that the relative dominance of redistributive beliefs in Argentina and self-reliance beliefs in Peru help explain why support for redistribution is higher in the former country. Finally, this dissertation develops a politico-historical explanation for why and how these frames became relatively dominant. This account argues that individuals’ inequality frames are relatively stable during times of normal politics, but malleable during certain critical political junctures brought about by major events like mass political incorporation or economic crises. During such times, individuals are particularly receptive to elite cues and messages that are transmitted not only via rhetoric but also via public policies. Redistributive beliefs become dominant wherever political actors whose discourse features elements consistent with the redistributive frame are able to implement successful comprehensive social policies. The self-reliance frame becomes dominant in countries where this combination of rhetoric and policies does not take place during a critical juncture.
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碩士
國立臺北大學
財政學系
98
According to the 2008 Survey of Family Income and Expenditure, the income gap between the rich and the poor has been increasing in recent years. Therefore, how to reduce the income gap has become an important policy. In general, the government uses progressive tax and social security programs to redistribute income and improve inequality. The purpose of this study is to examine the determinants of people’s preference for redistribution policies, using the 2006 and 2007 Taiwan Social Change Surveys (TSCS). From probit and ordered probit estimation results, we find that individuals will increase their demand for redistribution policies when they face uncertainty. Also, those who believe that wealth and poverty are caused by effort level show less support for redistribution policies. Moreover, people are more likely to support redistribution policies if they believe the society has become more unequal. Lastly, those who believe that their family income status has improved are significantly less supportive of redistribution policies. The findings of this study suggest that individual characteristics play an important role in demand for redistribution policies.

This thesis studies the relationship between the informal institutions represented by religiousness, the way of understanding religion, the control over life and the preferences for income redistribution by state. Influence of informal institutions on preferences for income redistribution was confirmed by using multinomial logistic regression, contingency table, as well as cluster analysis. Results from empirical analysis suggest a polarization of religious people into those with positive preferences and those with negative preferences towards income redistribution. Most of the recent studies that were geographically defined claimed a rather negative preferences of religious people towards income redistribution by the state. Understanding religion as following norms and ceremonies, as well as high perception of life control lead to rather negative preferences towards income redistribution. Understanding religion as doing good to other people as well as low perception of life control lead to rather positive preferences towards income redistribution by the state.

碩士
國立臺北大學
財政學系
99
In a market economy, income distribution is mainly the outcome of the labor market. Therefore, the income tax levied against earned income can be described as the core of redistribution policies. However, it is difficult to achieve the goal of the equalizing income distribution only from taxing hard work. In reality, both the income tax and the estate tax are the important policy tools for redistribution. Under the trend of free trade and globalization, economic growth often accompanies with the negative effects of widening income gap between rich and poor. As a result, it is highly concerned that whether the systems of income tax and estate tax can meet the objectives of fairness and justice, and whether they can be consistent with the people’s preferences. By using the data from the 2007 Taiwan Social Change Survey, this study investigates people’s preferences for redistribution polices for the cases of income tax and estate tax. Measured as the ratio of a family’s income to the median family income, the empirical results of this study suggest that the higher the relative income status of a household, the more supportive for a higher rate of estate tax. In addition, the amount of personal investment has a significantly negative relationship with the preferences for redistribution policies.

In most cases in a deceased person’s estate, there are problems with co-ownership where more than one family member inherits the deceased family estate assets. To escape the perils of co-ownership the beneficiaries consensually agree to divide the inherited communallyshared asset/s. This agreement can take place immediately after the death of the family estate owner or some time later regarding some or all of the said assets. On the conclusion of the division agreement, the contractual party who receives the awarded assets enjoys sole ownership and the other contractual parties by agreement retract their ownership. In a jurisprudential content analysis of forty-six recorded family deceased division agreements from Old Babylonian Larsa and Nippur, essential elements are identified which are the framework and qualification requirements for a family deceased division agreement. Within this framework the concepts, terms and elements of the agreement are categorised as natural and incidental elements, which reflect the specific law traditions and choices of contractual parties and show the unique scribal traditions in the different Old Babylonian city-states of Larsa, Nippur and Sippar. The aim of the study is to shed a more focused light on the interpretation of recorded Old Babylonian division agreements and to show that the division agreement was a successful, timeless, estate administration mechanism and tool to obviate any undesirable consequences of co-ownership of the bequeathed property.
Old Testament & Ancient Near Eastern Studies
D. Litt. et Phil. (Ancient Near Eastern Studies)