More Than Self-Interest? Fairness Beliefs and Intergenerational Mobility

• In Event: Public Support for Redistribution Revisited

Abstract

The determinants of redistribution preferences have received (for good reason) a lot of scholarly attention of late. Two influential literatures have developed: one emphasizing fairness and the other intergenerational mobility. The first one shows that most people are willing to accept income differences that are based on effort and choice, but reject inequalities that are the outcome of luck and circumstances. The second one focuses on the relationship between parents’ and children's income outcomes and their effects on the demand for redistribution. These two approaches are often disconnected. In this paper we explore, theoretically and empirically, the relationship between fairness beliefs and intergenerational mobility as determinants of preferences for redistribution.

Authors

• Verena Rebecca Fetscher, University of Hamburg

• David Rueda, University of Oxford