Your Place in the World: Relative Income and Global Inequality

92 Pages Posted: 30 Dec 2019 Last revised: 30 Aug 2021

See all articles by Dietmar Fehr

Dietmar Fehr

Heidelberg University - Alfred Weber Institute for Economics

Johanna Mollerstrom

George Mason University - Department of Economics; Research Institute of Industrial Economics (IFN)

Ricardo Perez-Truglia

University of California, Berkeley; National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER)

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Date Written: December 7, 2019

Abstract

Although there is abundant evidence on individual preferences for policies that reduce national inequality, there is very little evidence on preferences for policies addressing global inequality. To investigate the latter, we conduct a two-year, face-to-face survey experiment on a representative sample of Germans. We measure how individuals form perceptions of their ranks in the national and global income distributions, and how those perceptions relate to their national and global policy preferences. We find that Germans systematically underestimate their true place in the world's income distribution, but that correcting those misperceptions does not affect their support for policies related to global inequality.

Keywords: inequality, redistribution, survey, experiment

JEL Classification: C83, C91, D63, D72, H23, H24

Suggested Citation

Fehr, Dietmar and Mollerstrom, Johanna and Perez-Truglia, Ricardo, Your Place in the World: Relative Income and Global Inequality (December 7, 2019). GMU Working Paper in Economics No. 20-04, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3500138 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3500138

Dietmar Fehr

Heidelberg University - Alfred Weber Institute for Economics ( email )

Grabengasse 14
Heidelberg, D-69117
Germany

Johanna Mollerstrom

George Mason University - Department of Economics ( email )

4400 University Drive
Fairfax, VA 22030
United States

HOME PAGE: http://https://sites.google.com/site/johannamollerstrom/

Research Institute of Industrial Economics (IFN) ( email )

Box 55665
Grevgatan 34, 2nd floor
Stockholm, SE-102 15
Sweden

Ricardo Perez-Truglia (Contact Author)

University of California, Berkeley ( email )

310 Barrows Hall
Berkeley, CA 94720
United States

National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) ( email )

1050 Massachusetts Avenue
Cambridge, MA 02138
United States

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