abstract: 'Prior research shows that fairness judgements regarding the income

  distribution have a substantive impact on redistribution preferences.

  Those who perceive incomes as unfair demand more redistribution.

  However, the association is undertheorized in previous studies. This

  article adds to the literature by offering a comprehensive theoretical

  explanation of why incomes are perceived as unfair and how this

  influences the demand for redistribution. Based on equity theory from

  social psychology, it is argued that individuals develop a preference

  for redistribution if they consider their own income and incomes in

  general to be disproportional to relevant exchanged inputs. They assess

  proportionality by using social comparisons with observable reference

  groups such as colleagues, family members or other labour market

  participants. Multilevel models with survey data from 39 diverse

  countries support this theory. Individuals who perceive their own income

  as disproportional in comparison to their efforts and those who perceive

  incomes in general as disproportional demand more redistribution. These

  findings have several implications for research on political economy and

  social policy. Most importantly, they explain the inconclusive results

  of empirical tests of rational choice theories such as the median-voter

  hypothesis.'
affiliation: 'Ahrens, L (Corresponding Author), Univ Bamberg, Fac Social Sci Econ
  \& Business Adm, Bamberg, Germany.

  Ahrens, Leo, Univ Bamberg, Fac Social Sci Econ \& Business Adm, Bamberg, Germany.'
article-number: '1617639'
author: Ahrens, Leo
author-email: leo.ahrens@uni-bamberg.de
author_list:
- family: Ahrens
  given: Leo
da: '2023-09-28'
doi: 10.1080/2474736X.2019.1617639
eissn: 2474-736X
files: []
journal: POLITICAL RESEARCH EXCHANGE
keywords: Redistribution; social policy; fairness; income distribution
keywords-plus: 'INCOME INEQUALITY; SOCIAL-MOBILITY; RELATIVE DEPRIVATION; SELF-INTEREST;

  PREFERENCES; SUPPORT; EMPLOYMENT; TOLERANCE; EQUALITY; BELIEFS'
language: English
number: '1'
number-of-cited-references: '63'
orcid-numbers: Ahrens, Leo/0000-0003-2029-9145
papis_id: 2f025ecd623c93b104124966650a2d21
ref: Ahrens2019theorizingimpact
times-cited: '5'
title: Theorizing the impact of fairness perceptions on the demand for redistribution
type: Article
unique-id: WOS:000648615600002
usage-count-last-180-days: '1'
usage-count-since-2013: '2'
volume: '1'
web-of-science-categories: Political Science
year: '2019'