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A false divide? Providing information about inequality aligns preferences for redistribution between right- and left-wing voters

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Abstract

Are differences in preferences for redistribution between right- and left-wing voters amplified because of misperceptions of inequality? To address this question, we conduct three nationally representative, randomized survey experiments with 7020 Australians, in which respondents are informed about either the level of national inequality and economic mobility, their position in the national income distribution, or given no information. We show that correcting misperceptions of inequality reduces the gap in support for redistribution between right-wing and left-wing voters by between 21 to 37 percent. This is predominantly due to right-wing voters, who held more inaccurate priors, increasing their support for redistribution.

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Data availability

The data and code used in this paper is available upon request from the authors.

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Funding

This paper presents independent analysis and the surveys were funded by the University of Sydney Research Excellence Initiative and Equity Economics. The content of the paper is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily reflect the official views of the funders.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Australian National University, Canberra, ACT, 2601, Australia

    Christopher Hoy & Nurina Merdikawati

  2. University of Sydney, Camperdown, NSW, 2050, Australia

    Russell Toth

Authors
  1. Christopher Hoy
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  2. Russell Toth
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  3. Nurina Merdikawati
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Contributions

The authors’ contributed evenly to this study.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Christopher Hoy.

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Ethics approval

Ethics approval for this study was obtained from the Australian National University Ethics Review Committee on the 11th of September 2017 (protocol number 2017/638).

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The authors’ declare they have no conflicts of interest or competing interests.

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This paper presents independent analysis and is part of a project funded by the University of Sydney Research Excellence Initiative and Equity Economics. The content of the paper is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily reflect the official views of the funders. The authors are very grateful for comments provided by Andrew Leigh, Amanda Robbins, Mathias Sinning and Robert Slonim, as well as from seminar participants at the Australian National University, the Australian Parliament, the Australian Treasury, the Australian Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet, the Australian Department of Industry, Science, Energy and Resources and the Australian Tax Office. Replication code and data is available upon request.

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Hoy, C., Toth, R. & Merdikawati, N. A false divide? Providing information about inequality aligns preferences for redistribution between right- and left-wing voters. J Econ Inequal (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10888-023-09609-2

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