Biased Perceptions of Income Inequality and Redistribution
23 Pages Posted: 8 Jul 2014
Date Written: June 12, 2014
Abstract
When based on perceived rather than on objective income distributions, the Meltzer-Richards hypothesis and the POUM hypothesis work quite well empirically: there exists a positive link between perceived inequality or perceived upward mobility and the extent of redistribution in democratic regimes – though such a link does not exist when objective measures of inequality and social mobility are used. These observations highlight that political preferences and choices might depend more on perceptions than on factual data.
Keywords: biased perception, majority voting, redistribution
JEL Classification: H530, D720, D310
Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation