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Johanna Mollerstrom
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Journal Articles
Lucky to Work
UnavailablePublisher: Journals Gateway
The Review of Economics and Statistics 1–44.
Published: 19 May 2025
Abstract
View articletitled, Lucky to Work
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Inequalities are often regarded as more acceptable when they reflect differences in effort, rather than differences in luck. However, effort and luck are often intertwined, and luck may decide if an individual can even exert effort. Using survey experiments in the US and Sweden we study situations where luck fully determines whether an agent works. We document that spectators, tasked with redistributing income between agents, grant working agents more earnings and also more utility, than non-workers. This leads to individuals who were unable to work, owing to sheer bad luck, to fall behind both in terms of earnings and welfare.
Includes: Supplementary data
Journal Articles
Richer (and Holier) Than Thou? The Effect of Relative Income Improvements on Demand for Redistribution
UnavailablePublisher: Journals Gateway
The Review of Economics and Statistics (2017) 99 (2): 201–212.
Published: 01 May 2017
Abstract
View articletitled, Richer (and Holier) Than Thou? The Effect of Relative Income Improvements on Demand for Redistribution
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for article titled, Richer (and Holier) Than Thou? The Effect of Relative Income Improvements on Demand for Redistribution
We use a tailor-made survey on a Swedish sample to investigate how individuals' relative income affects their demand for redistribution. We first document that a majority misperceive their position in the income distribution and believe that they are poorer, relative to others, than they actually are. We then inform a subsample about their true relative income and find that individuals who are richer than they initially thought demand less redistribution. This result is driven by individuals with prior right-of-center political preferences who view taxes as distortive and believe that effort, rather than luck, drives individual economic success.
Includes: Supplementary data