Skip to Main Content
HBS Home
  • About
  • Academic Programs
  • Alumni
  • Faculty & Research
  • Baker Library
  • Giving
  • Harvard Business Review
  • Initiatives
  • News
  • Recruit
  • Map / Directions
Working Knowledge
Business Research for Business Leaders
  • Browse All Articles
  • Popular Articles
  • Cold Call Podcast
  • Managing the Future of Work Podcast
  • About Us
  • Book
  • Leadership
  • Marketing
  • Finance
  • Management
  • Entrepreneurship
  • All Topics...
  • Topics
    • COVID-19
    • Entrepreneurship
    • Finance
    • Gender
    • Globalization
    • Leadership
    • Management
    • Negotiation
    • Social Enterprise
    • Strategy
  • Sections
    • Book
    • Podcasts
    • HBS Case
    • In Practice
    • Lessons from the Classroom
    • Op-Ed
    • Research & Ideas
    • Research Event
    • Sharpening Your Skills
    • What Do You Think?
    • Working Paper Summaries
  • Browse All
    How Elastic Are Preferences for Redistribution? Evidence from Randomized Survey Experiments
    26 Mar 2013Working Paper Summaries

    How Elastic Are Preferences for Redistribution? Evidence from Randomized Survey Experiments

    by Ilyana Kuziemko, Michael I. Norton, Emmanuel Saez and Stefanie Stantchev
    The United States has witnessed a large increase in income concentration over the past several decades. While standard theory predicts that support for redistribution should increase with income inequality, there has been little evidence of greater demand for redistribution despite historic increases in income concentration. A possible explanation is that people are unaware of the increase in inequality, and greater information would substantially move redistributive preferences. The authors examine the determinants of redistributive preferences through randomized online survey experiments with Amazon Mechanical Turk, a rapidly growing new laboratory to carry out social experiments. The results show that information changes people's beliefs about the current level of inequality and leads them to become more favorable to redistributive policies like the estate tax. Key concepts include:
    • Respondents update their views about income inequality when presented with information about the current distribution of income. Liberals and conservatives differ greatly in their perception of inequality, but receiving information about inequality closes roughly forty percent of this "opinion gap."
    • Receiving information about current levels of income inequality causes liberals and conservatives to become more supportive of redistributive policies such as the estate tax.
    • At the same time, emphasizing the severity of current income inequality appears to undercut respondents' willingness to trust the government to fix societal problems. The existence of the problem appears to serve as evidence of the government's limited capacity to improve outcomes more generally.
    • Randomized surveys are a powerful and convenient tool for studying the effects of information treatments on attitudes and behaviors.
    • mTurk is powerful because it can reach large samples of U.S. residents (in the thousands) at fairly low cost ($1-$2 per respondent). It is convenient because, using widely available software, online surveys are now very easy to design.
    • In contrast to field experiments, which are costly to set-up and replicate, online survey experiments lend themselves naturally to conducting series of experiments where results from an initial experiment lead to new experiments to cast light on potential mechanisms.
    LinkedIn
    Email
      Trending
        • 08 Sep 2022
        • Book

        Gen Xers and Millennials, It’s Time To Lead. Are You Ready?

        • 25 Jan 2022
        • Research & Ideas

        More Proof That Money Can Buy Happiness (or a Life with Less Stress)

        • 25 Feb 2019
        • Research & Ideas

        How Gender Stereotypes Kill a Woman’s Self-Confidence

        • 17 May 2017
        • Research & Ideas

        Minorities Who 'Whiten' Job Resumes Get More Interviews

        • 28 Mar 2023
        • Research & Ideas

        The FDA’s Speedy Drug Approvals Are Safe: A Win-Win for Patients and Pharma Innovation

    Michael I. Norton
    Michael I. Norton
    Harold M. Brierley Professor of Business Administration
    Unit Head, Negotiation, Organizations & Markets
    Contact
    Send an email
    → More Articles
    Find Related Articles
    • Economics
    • Government and Politics

    Sign up for our weekly newsletter

    Interested in improving your business? Learn about fresh research and ideas from Harvard Business School faculty.
    This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.
    ǁ
    Campus Map
    Harvard Business School Working Knowledge
    Baker Library | Bloomberg Center
    Soldiers Field
    Boston, MA 02163
    Email: Editor-in-Chief
    →Map & Directions
    →More Contact Information
    • Make a Gift
    • Site Map
    • Jobs
    • Harvard University
    • Trademarks
    • Policies
    • Accessibility
    • Digital Accessibility
    Copyright © President & Fellows of Harvard College