Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/202821 
Year of Publication: 
2019
Series/Report no.: 
IZA Discussion Papers No. 12475
Publisher: 
Institute of Labor Economics (IZA), Bonn
Abstract: 
A society that believes wealth to be determined by random "luck", rather than by merit, demands more redistribution. We present evidence of this behavior by exploiting a natural experiment provided by the L'Aquila earthquake in 2009, which hit a large area of Central Italy through a series of destructive shakes over eight days. Matching detailed information on the ground acceleration registered during each shock with survey data about individual opinions on redistribution we show that the average intensity of the shakes is associated with subsequent stronger beliefs that, for a society to be fair, income inequalities should be levelled by redistribution. The shocks, however, are not all alike. We find that only the last three shakes - occurred on the fourth and the eighth day of the earthquake - have a statistically significant impact. Overall, we find that the timing and repetition of the shocks play a role in informing redistributive preferences.
Subjects: 
redistribution
inequality
natural disasters
earthquakes
multiple shocks
JEL: 
H10
H53
D63
D69
Z1
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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