In this paper we focus on the connection between perception of the competitive pressure situation (unemployment, uncertainty, rising income and wealth inequalities, decreasing mobility) and demand for redistribution. Our context is Hungary, between 2000 and 2002. We identify some basic variables that have important effect on the individuals' preferences for redistribution, namely, uncertainty in actual and future income, and unemployment. Uncertainty raises the demand for redistribution even among the upwardly mobile people, and labour market status is also a major element of dissatisfaction and demand for redistribution. The most frustrated and indecisive people are those who have no clear knowledge about the immediate and the distant future. Indecisive people favour redistribution more than those with negative expectations. Past personal experience and the expectation for future income have a very strong effect on the formation of thinking about income redistribution. Even those who are currently mobile in income tend to support redistribution if they are expecting a decline in their future income and welfare. According to the POUM hypothesis, we also found a negative correlation between expected intergenerational mobility and individual support for redistribution. People perceive their relative income position, their relative mobility and inequality in different ways and their demand for redistribution substantially depends on the subjective and not on the objective income position. Concerning perception of changes in inequality, we found that the more people feel that inequalities are increasing, the more they favour redistribution policies.
Download Info
To download:
If you experience problems downloading a file, check if you have the
proper application to
view it first. Information about this may be contained
in the File-Format links below. In case of further problems read
the IDEAS help
page. Note that these files are not on the IDEAS
site. Please be patient as the files may be large.
Publisher Info
Paper provided by Institute of Economics, Hungarian Academy of Sciences in its series IEHAS Discussion Papers with number
0608.
Find related papers by JEL classification: D31 - Microeconomics - - Distribution - - - Personal Income and Wealth Distribution D63 - Microeconomics - - Welfare Economics - - - Equity, Justice, Inequality, and Other Normative Criteria and Measurement D80 - Microeconomics - - Information, Knowledge, and Uncertainty - - - General J62 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Mobility, Unemployment, and Vacancies - - - Job, Occupational and Intergenerational Mobility; Promotion I31 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Welfare and Poverty - - - General Welfare H50 - Public Economics - - National Government Expenditures and Related Policies - - - General
This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:
References listed on IDEAS Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.:
Alberto Alesina & George-Marios Angeletos, 2005.
"Fairness and Redistribution,"
American Economic Review,
American Economic Association, vol. 95(4), pages 960-980, September.
[Downloadable!]
Other versions: