Browsing by Subject "Redistribution"

When do individuals feel that economic inequality needs to be corrected through redistributive government policy, such as progressive taxes or social spending? Using a cross-national data set of public opinion across both developing and developed countries, this dissertation finds that political context plays a key role in determining how individuals view economic inequality and their support for redistributive social policy. An overarching theme throughout the dissertation is that political elites are key in making inequality a prominent issue for the public. This is done by framing individual attributes such as income, ethnic identity or geographic local (urban vs. rural) in a way that will either maximize or minimize support for redistribution. When political elites lack incentives to mobilize public opinion on the issue, it becomes unlikely that individual attributes such as income or ethnicity will predict support for redistribution.

Is there any long-term factor that shapes individual preference for income redistribution and corresponding economic or political behavior? I document the persistent effect of language structure, specifically word order freedom (WoF), on preference for redistribution. WoF refers to the extent to which word order can be changed without affecting the original meaning. In this article, I develop two formal models to show how languages with more flexibility in word order foster a consciousness of equality and encourage people to be more risk-averse. Empirically, using two general social surveys, I find that people speaking a language with greater WoF are more likely to purchase insurance and support to reduce the income gap. Furthermore, I investigate a natural experiment traced back to the Viking age. By using Scandinavian settlements as an instrumental variable, I reveal the causal relationship between language and the variation of human political attitudes and behaviors.