Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/96757 
Year of Publication: 
2014
Series/Report no.: 
IZA Discussion Papers No. 8136
Publisher: 
Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA), Bonn
Abstract: 
We review the survey and experimental findings in the literature on attitudes to income inequality. We interpret the latter as any disparity in incomes between individuals. We classify these findings into two broad types of individual attitudes towards the income distribution in a society: the normative and the comparative view. The first can be thought of as the individual's disinterested evaluation of income inequality; on the contrary, the second view reflects self-interest, as individual's inequality attitudes depend not only on how much income they receive but also on how much they receive compared to others. We conclude with a number of extensions, outstanding issues and suggestions for future research.
Subjects: 
attitudes
distribution
experiments
income inequality
life satisfaction
reference groups
JEL: 
C91
D31
D63
I31
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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