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Perceived relative income, fairness, and the role of government: Evidence from a randomized survey experiment in China

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  • Mu, Ren

Abstract

Previous studies have shown that Chinese citizens generally are optimistic about their economic opportunities and tolerant of the high levels of inequality in their society. This paper conducts a random survey experiment to examine whether the established views on fairness and inequality change after the respondents receive the general information on wealth concentration or the customized information on their household income ranking. We find that both types of information lead respondents to view society as less fair than they had initially believed. The information on the wealth concentration also increases public concern about social inequality. Nevertheless, neither information offered to the respondents make them think that government should play a more significant role in reducing inequality. This lack of demand for government intervention may be partially explained by a lower level of trust in the local government induced by the two information treatments.

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  • Mu, Ren, 2022. "Perceived relative income, fairness, and the role of government: Evidence from a randomized survey experiment in China," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 73(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:chieco:v:73:y:2022:i:c:s1043951x22000426
    DOI: 10.1016/j.chieco.2022.101784
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    2. Yuchen Huang & Zhexun Mo, 2022. "Meritocracy as a WEIRD Phenomenon: Fairness Reasoning and Redistributive Preferences across the World," Working Papers halshs-04129246, HAL.
    3. Belguise, Margot & Huang, Yuchen & Mo, Zhexun, 2023. "Non-Meritocrats or Conformist Meritocrats? A Redistribution Experiment in China and France," The Warwick Economics Research Paper Series (TWERPS) 1476, University of Warwick, Department of Economics.
    4. Margot Belguise & Yuchen Huang & Zhexun Mo, 2024. "Non-meritocrats or choice-reluctant meritocrats? A redistribution experiment in China and France," Discussion Papers 2024-05, Nottingham Interdisciplinary Centre for Economic and Political Research (NICEP).
    5. Dmytro Osiichuk, 2022. "The Driver of Workplace Alienation or the Cost of Effective Stewardship? The Consequences of Wage Gap for Corporate Performance," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(13), pages 1-26, June.
    6. Yuchen Huang & Zhexun Mo, 2022. "Meritocracy as a WEIRD Phenomenon: Fairness Reasoning and Redistributive Preferences across the World," World Inequality Lab Working Papers halshs-04129246, HAL.
    7. Marino, Maria & Iacono, Roberto & Mollerstrom, Johanna, 2023. "(Mis-)perceptions, information, and political polarization," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 119268, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    8. Xu, Tao & Zhu, Weiwei, 2021. "Eudemonia and Freedom: A Bibliometric Research on Frontiers and Evolution of Labour and Employment in China," MPRA Paper 112908, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised 30 Mar 2022.
    9. Belguise, Margot & Huang, Yuchen & Mo, Zhexun, 2023. "Non-Meritocrats or Conformist Meritocrats? A Redistribution Experiment in China and France," CEPREMAP Working Papers (Docweb) 2308, CEPREMAP.

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