Why Americans do not Favor Redistribution from the Rich?: The United States in Comparative Perspective

• In Event: 411 - Section on Inequality, Poverty, and Mobility Refereed Roundtable Session and Business Meeting
  In Refereed Roundtable 60min: Table 01. Attitudes about Inequality and Redistribution.

Abstract

Why Americans do not favor redistribution away from the rich? This study examines the determinants of the weakness of support for redistribution from the rich in the United States by conducting comparative study with France and Sweden. The study suggest heterogeneous choice models for comparing determinants of ordinal outcomes across countries. This study shows that lower perception of inequality and weak beliefs in government’s role in solving inequality limit support for taxes from the rich, but the evidence for the weak support is not different from France and Sweden. The data used in this study is International Social Survey Program (ISSP): Social Inequality 4 in 2009.

Author

• Joonghyun Kwak, University of Connecticut