If you want people to support fixing inequality, they’d rather see fair starting wages than high taxes on the rich.
March 25, 2026
Original Paper
Fair (P)redistribution
SSRN · 6464018
The Takeaway
In experiments across the US and Sweden, people were more likely to support 'predistribution' (setting wages early) than 'redistribution' (taxing later), even when the final outcome was the same. People view taxes as breaking a deal, but view early intervention as fixing a rigged game.
From the abstract
To address rising income inequality, governments typically rely on two levers: predistribution policies that determine incomes before they are earned---e.g. minimum-wage laws---and redistribution policies that determine incomes after they are earned---e.g. taxes and transfers. We explore whether support for reducing inequality depends on the choice of policy lever. Using incentivized experiments with the general population of the US and Sweden (N=2528), we study inequality reduction under predis