Financial Literacy and Attitudes to Redistribution

60 Pages Posted: 26 Mar 2017

See all articles by Alberto Montagnoli

Alberto Montagnoli

University of Stirling - Department of Economics

Mirko Moro

University of Stirling

Georgios A. Panos

University of Glasgow - Adam Smith Business School

Robert Wright

University of Strathclyde in Glasgow; Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA)

Abstract

This study combines novel financial-literacy data with measures of attitudes to redistribution from the British Election Study. We find a significant negative relationship between financial literacy and attitudes in favour of government intervention for income redistribution. The effect is robust to several specifications, samples, longitudinal models and instrumental variable regressions. Falsification tests show that these results are independent of generic attitudes towards other types of inequality/discrimination, e.g. based on gender, race or sexual orientation. An inquiry into the mechanisms of the effect indicates that the homo oeconomicus effect does not exert an impact on attitudes to redistribution for the less financially literate.

Keywords: financial literacy, redistribution, inequality, attitudes, Great Britain

JEL Classification: D14, D31, I24

Suggested Citation

Montagnoli, Alberto and Moro, Mirko and Panos, Georgios A. and Wright, Robert, Financial Literacy and Attitudes to Redistribution. IZA Discussion Paper No. 10633, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2940623 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2940623

Alberto Montagnoli (Contact Author)

University of Stirling - Department of Economics ( email )

Stirling, Scotland FK9 4LA
United Kingdom
+44-0 1786-46-7478 (Phone)
+44-0 1786-46-7469 (Fax)

HOME PAGE: http://www.staff.stir.ac.uk/alberto.montagnoli/

Mirko Moro

University of Stirling ( email )

Stirling, Scotland FK9 4LA
United Kingdom

Georgios A. Panos

University of Glasgow - Adam Smith Business School ( email )

Gilbert Scott Building
University Avenue
Glasgow, Scotland G128QQ
United Kingdom

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

Robert Wright

University of Strathclyde in Glasgow ( email )

16 Richmond Street
Glasgow 1XQ, Scotland G1 1XQ
United Kingdom

Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA) ( email )

P.O. Box 7240
Bonn, D-53072
Germany

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