Income distribution and inequality play a central role in the public and political debate in many developed and democratic countries. An increasing literature on (mis)perception of the distribution of income reveals that people have very little knowledge about the degree of inequality in the...

This paper uses an individual-level survey conducted by the Edelman Trust Barometer in mid-April for 11 advanced and emerging market economies to examine perceptions of government performance in managing the health and economic crisis, beliefs about the future, and attitudes about...

Bringing existing inequality in South Africa (high) and Switzerland (low) to the lab, we study how people's preferences for redistribution change with the level of income inequality, income mobility, uncertainty of initial income positions, source of income (random or based on real-effort). We...

We present two experiments designed to investigate whether individuals' notions of distributive justice are associated with their relative (within-society) economic status. Each participant played a specially designed four-person dictator game under one of two treatments, under one initial...

Knowledge of the factors driving people's views on redistribution in the Global South remains limited. While these societies occupy top positions in inequality rankings, redistribution levels tend to be lower. We combine survey and experimental data from Mozambique and Viet Nam to test whether...

We present two experiments designed to investigate whether individuals' notions of distributive justice are associated with their relative (within-society) economic status. Each participant played a specially designed four-person dictator game under one of two treatments, under one initial...

The amount of redistribution people favor depends on socioeconomic factors and their views on fairness. This study, based on a representative survey conducted in Sweden, confirms earlier results: Higher incomes are correlated with wanting less redistribution, women are more in favor of...

Most people tend to equate success with merit, a tendency that is particularly pronounced among conservatives. However, in practice it is exceedingly difficult to discern the relative impact of luck and effort to economic success. Based on a large-scale online study that samples the general US...

Meritocratic beliefs are often invoked as justification of inequality. We provide evidence on how meritocratic beliefs are shaped by economic status and how they contribute to the moral justification of inequality. In a large-scale survey experiment in the US, we show that success causes a...

Meritocratic beliefs are often invoked as justification of inequality. We provide evidence on how meritocratic beliefs are shaped by economic status and how they contribute to the moral justification of inequality. In a large-scale survey experiment in the US, we show that success causes a...