Voting on redistribution

Titelangaben

Ulrich, Volker ; Schneider, Udo:
Voting on redistribution.
Bayreuth : Univ. Bayreuth , 2011 . - 19 S. - (Wirtschaftswissenschaftliche Diskussionspapiere der Universität Bayreuth, Rechts- und Wirtschaftswissenschaftliche Fakultät ; 05-11 )

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Abstract

Redistribution has gained attention in the political process in the last decades. At present, a share of 22 percent of the GDP is related to social expenditures and serves redistributive purposes. In the literature, first approaches deal with as-pects of income inequality and its impact on public policy. Newer models inte-grated aspects of upward mobility, partisan behavior and taxation. While most of the approaches only refer to transfers as the only form of public expenditures, including public goods changes the picture. With two population subgroups, in-centives when voting for redistribution depend on whether an individual is tax-payer or benefits from public transfers. Moreover, in times of an aging popula-tion, the group of transfer recipients, especially retirees, becomes the dominant group thereby gaining more electoral weight than the group of employees.