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Labor Market Participation, Political Ideology and Distributive Preferences

Author

Listed:
  • Simona Demel

    (School of Economics and Business, University of the Basque Country (UPV/EHU))

  • Abigail Barr

    (Department of Economics, University of Nottingham)

  • Luis Miller

    (School of Economics and Business, University of the Basque Country (UPV/EHU))

  • Paloma Ubeda

    (School of Economics and Business, University of the Basque Country (UPV/EHU))

Abstract

Using a political-frame-free, lab-in-the-field experiment, we investigate the effects of employment status and political ideology on preferences for redistribution. The experiment consists of a real-effort task, followed by a four-player dictator game. In one treatment, initial endowments depend on participants’ performance in the real-effort task, i.e., they are earned, in the other, they are randomly determined.We find that being employed or unemployed affects revealed redistributive preferences, while the political ideology of the employed and unemployed does not. In contrast, the revealed redistributive preferences of students are strongly related to their political ideologies. The employed and right-leaning students redistribute earnings less than windfalls, the unemployed and left-leaning students make no such distinction. We conclude that, when people are not exposed to the sometimes harsh realities of the labor market, their redistributive preferences depend on their political ideology but, when they are exposed, the effect of those realities overrules their ideology.

Suggested Citation

  • Simona Demel & Abigail Barr & Luis Miller & Paloma Ubeda, 2016. "Labor Market Participation, Political Ideology and Distributive Preferences," Discussion Papers 2016-18, The Centre for Decision Research and Experimental Economics, School of Economics, University of Nottingham.
    • Handle: RePEc:not:notcdx:2016-18
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    File URL: https://www.nottingham.ac.uk/cedex/documents/papers/cedex-discussion-paper-2016-18.pdf
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    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Margalit, Yotam, 2013. "Explaining Social Policy Preferences: Evidence from the Great Recession," American Political Science Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 107(1), pages 80-103, February.
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    More about this item

    Keywords

    economic status; lab-in-the-field experiments; left-right scale; redistribution;
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