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Attitudes toward income inequality in France: Do people really disagree?

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  • Piketty, Thomas

Abstract

These seminar notes report preliminary findings from a survey run in July 1998 in France on individual attitudes toward income inequality. The main finding is that people simply do not seem to disagree very much about the ideal pay scale and income ratios across individuals. Low-income individuals, as well as left-wing voters, do indeed tend to favor a more compressed income distribution than high-income individuals and right-wing supporters, but the point is that these disagreements are quantitatively very small. In particular, people seem to disagree much more about issues such as the death penalty, foreigners, the rôle of women, etc., than about income inequality.

Suggested Citation

  • Piketty, Thomas, 1999. "Attitudes toward income inequality in France: Do people really disagree?," CEPREMAP Working Papers (Couverture Orange) 9918, CEPREMAP.
    • Handle: RePEc:cpm:cepmap:9918
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    File URL: http://www.cepremap.fr/depot/couv_orange/co9918.pdf
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Thomas Piketty, 1995. "Social Mobility and Redistributive Politics," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 110(3), pages 551-584.
    2. Roland Benabou & Efe A. Ok, 2001. "Social Mobility and the Demand for Redistribution: The Poum Hypothesis," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 116(2), pages 447-487.
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    Cited by:

    1. Salvador Ball & Amadéo Spadaro, 2006. "Optimal nonlinear labor income taxation in dynamic economies," PSE Working Papers halshs-00590555, HAL.
    2. Elvire Guillaud, 2011. "Preferences for redistribution : an empirical analysis," Post-Print halshs-00594072, HAL.
    3. Anna Górska & Krawiec Monika, 2021. "The Analysis of Weak-Form Efficiency in the Market of Crude Oil," European Journal of Economics and Business Studies Articles, Revistia Research and Publishing, vol. 2, May - Aug.
    4. Jacques Silber & Amedeo Spadaro, 2011. "Inequality of Life Chances and the Measurement of Social Immobility," Studies in Choice and Welfare, in: Marc Fleurbaey & Maurice Salles & John A. Weymark (ed.), Social Ethics and Normative Economics, pages 129-154, Springer.
    5. Elvire Guillaud, 2013. "Preferences for redistribution: an empirical analysis over 33 countries," The Journal of Economic Inequality, Springer;Society for the Study of Economic Inequality, vol. 11(1), pages 57-78, March.
    6. Konrad, Kai A. & Spadaro, Amedeo, 2006. "Education, redistributive taxation and confidence," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 90(1-2), pages 171-188, January.
    7. Suhrcke, Marc, 2001. "Preferences for Inequality: East vs. West," Discussion Paper Series 26369, Hamburg Institute of International Economics.
    8. Elvire Guillaud, 2008. "Preferences for redistribution: a European comparative analysis," PSE Working Papers halshs-00586260, HAL.
    9. repec:hal:pseose:halshs-00586260 is not listed on IDEAS
    10. Salvador Ball & Amadéo Spadaro, 2006. "Optimal nonlinear labor income taxation in dynamic economies," Working Papers halshs-00590555, HAL.

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    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • D31 - Microeconomics - - Distribution - - - Personal Income and Wealth Distribution
    • D63 - Microeconomics - - Welfare Economics - - - Equity, Justice, Inequality, and Other Normative Criteria and Measurement
    • D64 - Microeconomics - - Welfare Economics - - - Altruism; Philanthropy; Intergenerational Transfers

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