Working Paper: CEPR ID: DP7997
Authors: Kai A. Konrad; Florian Morath
Abstract: We investigate redistributive taxation in a political economy experiment and determine how different patterns of social mobility affect the choices of redistributional taxes. In the absence of social mobility, voters choose tax rates that are very well in line with the prediction derived in the standard framework by Meltzer and Richard (1981). However, past or future changes in the income hierarchy affect the choice of the tax rate in the current period. The same is true for social mobility within the period to which the tax rate choice applies and for the case where the choice of the tax rate takes place behind the veil of ignorance. Due to our design of the experiment, these strong effects of own social mobility cannot be attributed to social or other-regarding preferences.
Keywords: median voter; redistribution; social mobility
JEL Codes: D72; D78; H20
Edges that are evidenced by causal inference methods are in orange, and the rest are in light blue.
| Cause | Effect |
|---|---|
| social mobility (J62) | tax rate choices (H29) |
| income hierarchy (D31) | tax rate choices (H29) |
| perceived mobility (J62) | median tax rates (H29) |
| veil of ignorance (D81) | tax rate choices (H29) |
| social mobility (J62) | voters' preferences (D72) |
| past or future changes in income hierarchy (D31) | current tax rate choices (H29) |
| social mobility (J62) | tax distortion effects (H31) |