This paper provides unprecedented direct evidence from large-scale survey data on both the intensity (how much?) and direction (to whom?) of income comparisons. Income comparisons are considered to be at least somewhat important by three-quarters of Europeans. They are associated with both lower...

What explains people s preferences for state intervention in social policies? Conducting a cross-section analysis on individual-level survey data, we highlight the link between the economic position of agents and their specific demand toward redistribution. Controlling for a number of factors...

Classical utilitarianism, if coupled with standard assumptions such as the expected utility hypothesis and additive lifetime welfare, has the undesirable corollary to recommend a redistribution of resources from short-lived to long-lived agents, against any intuition of compensation. This paper...

Using a new set of micro evidence from an original survey of 28 transition countries, we show that democracy increases citizens' support for the market by guaranteeing income redistribution to inequality-averse agents. Our identification strategy relies on the restriction of the sample to...

We consider redistributional taxation between people with and without human capital if education is endogenous and if individuals differ in their perceptions about own ability. Those who see their ability as low like redistributive taxation because of the transfers it generates. Those who see...

Dans la dernière décennie, Van Parijs (1995) et Kolm (2005) ont contribué, chacun à sa manière, à renouveler la question des fondements éthico-philosophiques de la fiscalité. Pour le premier, il s'agit de fournir un financement légitime au projet d'« allocation universelle », pour le...

Van Parijs (1995) and Kolm (2005) étudient les fondements éthico-philosophiques de la fiscalité et de la redistribution des revenus à travers les projets apparemment proches d'allocation universelle et de transferts ELIE (1). En fait, les deux propositions divergent en raison de modalités...

La théorie de la « macrojustice » [Kolm (2005)] est une contribution stimulante au débat contemporain sur la répartition macroéconomique des revenus. La solution préconisée ? les transferts redistributifs ELIE (« Equal Labor Income Equalization ») - résulte d'une construction à trois...

Using French data, we show that ELIE performs rather weakly when it comes to addressing the issue of poverty. Yet, eliminating poverty is also a valid normative property of any redistribution mechanism. We suggest combining ELIE with another redistributive solution aimed specifically at...

Dans l'UEM, la concurrence fiscale qui sévit fait peser un risque non négligeable sur l'ampleur des mesures redistributives mises en oeuvre dans chaque pays. A partir d'un modèle théorique d'union à deux pays au sein de laquelle le travail qualifié et le capital physique peuvent se...