Should Income Inequality Be Reduced and Who Should Benefit? Redistributive Preferences in Europe and Central Asia
This paper examines support for reducing inequality and for income redistribution to specific groups in Europe and Central Asia. The paper uses the Life in Transition Survey to analyze cross-country differences in redistributive preferences and the...
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| Language: | English en_US |
| Published: |
World Bank Group, Washington, DC
2014
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| Online Access: | http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/2014/11/20365793/income-inequality-reduced-benefit-redistributive-preferences-europe-central-asia http://hdl.handle.net/10986/20619 |
| Summary: | This paper examines support for reducing
inequality and for income redistribution to specific groups
in Europe and Central Asia. The paper uses the Life in
Transition Survey to analyze cross-country differences in
redistributive preferences and the determinants of
individual-level differences in such preferences. The
analysis tests for various possible motivations, such as
self-interest, beliefs about the fairness of the
income-generating process, past social mobility experience,
or expectations of future social mobility. Fewer people
wanted to reduce the gap between the rich and the poor in
2010 than in 2006 in transition countries. Support for
redistribution toward specific groups is highest for the
disabled and the elderly, but there is high heterogeneity
across countries in support for various redistributive
policies, as well as in the alignment between average
beliefs and actual policies. The empirical analysis confirms
the importance of beliefs about fairness in influencing
redistributive preferences, together with self-interest and
past and expected social mobility in European Union member
states (Western European and new member states), but only to
a limited extent in the non-European Union member state
group of transition countries. Regarding redistribution to
specific groups, self-interest appears to be an important
motivation for support for the elderly and families with
children, whereas values and beliefs are important drivers
of support for the working poor and the unemployed. Although
framing matters, the results are broadly robust to
alternative measures of support for reducing inequality. |
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