Trickle-Down Economics, Merit, and Redistribution: An Experiment with the Poorest and Richest US Americans

Abstract

Despite growing income inequality, demand for redistribution has remained stagnant, which is particularly puzzling for the poor. We investigate whether attitudes toward “trickle-down” economics and preferences for fairness affect demand for redistribution. We involve US residents in the bottom (N = 1, 200) and top (N = 1, 146) 20% of the income distribution in experimental redistributive decisions from high-income real-life entrepreneurs to low-income recipients. (...)