Misperceiving Inequality / Vladimir Gimpelson, Daniel Treisman.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Gimpelson, Vladimir.

Contributor:

National Bureau of Economic Research.

Treisman, Daniel.

Series:

Working Paper Series (National Bureau of Economic Research) no. w21174.

NBER working paper series no. w21174

Language:

English

Physical Description:

1 online resource: illustrations (black and white);

Place of Publication:

Cambridge, Mass. National Bureau of Economic Research 2015.

Summary:

A vast literature suggests that economic inequality has important consequences for politics and public policy. Higher inequality is thought to increase demand for income redistribution in democracies and to discourage democratization and promote class conflict and revolution in dictatorships. Most such arguments crucially assume that ordinary people know how high inequality is, how it has been changing, and where they fit in the income distribution. Using a variety of large, cross-national surveys, we show that, in recent years, ordinary people have had little idea about such things. What they think they know is often wrong. Widespread ignorance and misperceptions emerge robustly, regardless of data source, operationalization, and measurement method. Moreover, perceived inequality--not the actual level--correlates strongly with demand for redistribution and reported conflict between rich and poor. We suggest that most theories about political effects of inequality need to be reframed as theories about effects of perceived inequality.

Notes:

Print version record

May 2015.