IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/ehl/lserod/6267.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Perceptions of redistribution: report on exploratory qualitative research

Author

Listed:
  • Hedges, Alan

Abstract

This paper represents the results of a small-scale qualitative study, exploring public perceptions of the redistributive effects of taxation and public spending in the UK. Redistribution is not at the top of people’s minds when they consider these issues and it is a complex subject on which they have thought little. People appear to apply separate principles of ‘fairness’ and ‘mutuality’ to the structures of taxation and public spending. Fairness in taxation may involve more progressivity than the current system, and those with low incomes may need more help. The support this implies for the redistributive impact of government does not appear to be primarily motivated by concerns about making incomes more equal, but rather the outcome of belief in a system in which everyone can get help when they need it, and everyone contributes according to their means.

Suggested Citation

  • Hedges, Alan, 2005. "Perceptions of redistribution: report on exploratory qualitative research," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 6267, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    • Handle: RePEc:ehl:lserod:6267
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/6267/
    File Function: Open access version.
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Nick Bailey & Maria Gannon & Ade Kearns & Mark Livingston & Alastair H Leyland, 2013. "Living Apart, Losing Sympathy? How Neighbourhood Context Affects Attitudes to Redistribution and to Welfare Recipients," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 45(9), pages 2154-2175, September.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Redistribution; attitudes; taxation; public spending;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • I38 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Welfare, Well-Being, and Poverty - - - Government Programs; Provision and Effects of Welfare Programs

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:ehl:lserod:6267. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: LSERO Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/lsepsuk.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.