Attitudes towards hard work and redistributive preferences in developing countries

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Abstract (may include machine translation)

The reasons why certain individuals or societies support redistribution more than others have been broadly studied for many advanced countries, and it has been documented that both the actual programmes and the social coalitions behind them diverge considerably among comparable countries. Traditional economics literature mainly explains these reasons and their divergence by self-interest related motives such as the individual position on income and risk distribution (Meltzer and Richard 1981; Moene and Wallerstein 2001). However, empirical evidence does not seem to verify the theoretical claims raised by self-interest approaches. In countries with high levels of income and risk inequalities, low demand for public policies is detected, whereas more equal countries tend to also have higher public support for redistribution. As a result, a number of other factors have been offered ranging from social mobility to ethnic fragmentation to existing welfare and political institutions (Cusack et al. 2005; Benabou 2000; Glaeser 2005).
Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationSocial Protection in Developing Countries
Subtitle of host publicationReforming Systems
EditorsKatja Bender, Markus Kaltenborn, Christian Pfleiderer
PublisherTaylor and Francis
Pages95-108
Number of pages14
ISBN (Electronic)9780203082294
DOIs
StatePublished - 1 Jan 2013

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