• Graduate program
  • Research
  • Summer School
  • Events
    • Summer School
      • Applied Public Policy Evaluation
      • Deep Learning
      • Economics of Blockchain and Digital Currencies
      • Economics of Climate Change
      • Foundations of Machine Learning with Applications in Python
      • From Preference to Choice: The Economic Theory of Decision-Making
      • Gender in Society
      • Machine Learning for Business
      • Sustainable Finance
      • Tuition Fees and Payment
      • Business Data Science Summer School Program
    • Events Calendar
    • Events Archive
    • Tinbergen Institute Lectures
    • 16th Tinbergen Institute Annual Conference
    • Annual Tinbergen Institute Conference
  • News
  • Alumni
  • Magazine
Home | Events Archive | Perceived Inequality, Reference Groups and Preferences for Redistribution Among High Earners
Seminar

Perceived Inequality, Reference Groups and Preferences for Redistribution Among High Earners


  • Series
    Brown Bag Seminars General Economics
  • Speaker
    Clement Bellet
  • Field
    Behavioral Economics
  • Location
    Online
  • Date and time

    February 17, 2022
    12:00 - 13:00

Abstract: We investigate attitudes towards inequality among the “working rich” using a unique sample of nearly 1,000 graduates from a highly ranked MBA program and a representative sample of Americans. Our survey experiment shows that (1) high-earning individuals are far more likely to know their rank in the income distribution and that (2) comparisons with peers or others (i.e. reference groups) shape their redistributive preferences. This reference group treatment leads to an 18% drop in the income share allocated to the richest 1% but has no discernible effect on taxation preferences. We discuss the comparative and normative functions of reference groups as potential mechanisms.