Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/35922 
Authors: 
Year of Publication: 
2009
Series/Report no.: 
IZA Discussion Papers No. 4360
Publisher: 
Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA), Bonn
Abstract: 
This paper presents a simple conceptual framework intended for describing individuals' subjective evaluations of occupational wage inequality and their demand for redistribution. Most importantly, the framework explicitly allows for the distinction between individuals' perceptions and their normative beliefs. I illustrate the framework using Swiss survey data from the International Social Survey Program. While most individuals accept quite large wage differentials across occupations, they also prefer a lower level of overall wage inequality than what they perceive to exist. Consistent with previous evidence, the empirical analysis also shows that financial self-interest, social norms about distributive justice and perceptions of how wages are determined in reality all simultaneously influence the demand for redistribution. Finally, I show that subjective inequality measures and the demand for redistribution are substantially significant predictors of both individuals' support for government intervention and their party identification. This result provides indirect evidence on the presumed link between perceptions and beliefs on the one hand and political outcomes on the other hand.
Subjects: 
Subjective inequality measures
demand for redistribution
distributive justice
party identification
support for the welfare state
JEL: 
D3
D63
H1
Persistent Identifier of the first edition: 
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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