Inequality, Self-Interest, and Public Support for “Robin Hood” Tax Policies

2013 ◽  
Vol 66 (4) ◽  
pp. 923-937 ◽  
Author(s):  
William Franko ◽  
Caroline J. Tolbert ◽  
Christopher Witko
Keyword(s):  
Public Support ◽  
Tax Policies ◽  
Robin Hood ◽  
Self Interest

Globalization and the Economy: What Students Think

2013 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 84
Author(s):  
Patricia C Borstorff ◽  
Mark W Hearn ◽  
Falynn Turley
Keyword(s):  
Student Attitudes ◽  
Southeastern United States ◽  
Public Support ◽  
Economic Recession ◽  
Trade Agreements ◽  
Economic Conditions ◽  
Trade Disputes ◽  
Economic Expansion ◽  
Self Interest ◽  
Government Interference

Do attitudes toward globalization change with economic conditions? This paper compares student attitudes during an economic expansion with student attitudes during an economic recession. Globalization has resulted in lower prices, more choices, and a blurring of the lines of national identity for many products. Its impact also includes loss of domestic jobs, trade disputes, and challenges to national sovereignty by organizations, such as the World Trade Organization (WTO). Two surveys were administered in the College of Commerce and Business Administration at an AACSB-accredited southeastern United States university. The first took place in 2003 while the region was enjoying low unemployment and a vigorous economic expansion. The second was administered in 2009 during a time of significantly higher unemployment and economic recession. The 2003 survey found very positive views towards most aspects of globalization. In contrast, the second survey during markedly more depressed economic times found students were more concerned with their own self-interest, preferring less government interference and less globalization. The results suggest that attempts to promote trade agreements should consider economic conditions as part of their process of developing public support.

scholarly journals Disentangling the relationship between sociotropic and egotropic trade attitudes: A survey experiment in Japan

2019 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
pp. 31-42 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eddie Hearn
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Policy ◽  
Trade Policy ◽  
Observational Studies ◽  
Public Support ◽  
Careful Consideration ◽  
Policy Preferences ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Survey Experiment ◽  
Self Interest ◽  
The Relationship

AbstractPublic support for protection is typically attributed to economic self-interest. Beyond pocketbook anxieties, a competing approach, however, contends that sociotropic attitudes dictate foreign policy preferences. Researchers, however, have faced difficulty in disentangling sociotropic attitudes from pocketbook concerns in observational studies. This article addresses this problem by utilizing a priming experiment to examine the relationship between socio and egotropic attitudes. In line with the predictions of the sociotropic framework, individuals are less certain about the egotropic effects of trade and sociotropic attitudes are found to influence egotropic perceptions by reducing uncertainty about the pocketbook effects of trade. In contrast, the study fails to find support for the hypothesis that individuals project egotropic concerns onto societal evaluations. The results of the study suggest that future research should pay careful consideration to the relationship between socio and egotropic attitudes when modeling and analyzing trade-policy preferences.

Inequality Federalism and Economic Self-Interest in Subnational Progressive Tax Politics

2020 ◽  
pp. 106591292090511
Author(s):  
Benjamin J. Newman ◽  
Paul Teten
Keyword(s):  
Tax Policy ◽  
Public Support ◽  
Social Spending ◽  
Lower Income ◽  
Short Article ◽  
Progressive Tax ◽  
Self Interest ◽  
National Tax ◽  
Opinion Polls

In a national context of unabated inequality growth and recurrent tax cuts benefiting the wealthy, we have witnessed a notable rise in “inequality federalism,” characterized by subnational initiatives to redress economic inequality through progressive taxation and social spending. While leading research documents the tendency for Americans to fall prey to “unenlightened self-interest” when evaluating complex national tax policy, recent research suggests that the simplicity and clarity of emerging subnational redistributive initiatives facilitates the enactment of economic self-interest, particularly among lower income citizens. This short article builds on prior work by offering the most extensive analysis to date of the role of economic self-interest in public support for subnational progressive tax policies. Drawing upon opinion polls covering eight separate state ballot measures or legislative enactments, we find that in each instance the greatest level of support for the respective progressive tax policy is observed among lower income citizens.

The mission of land grant colleges of agriculture

2003 ◽  
Vol 18 (2) ◽  
pp. 103-115 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert L. Zimdahl
Keyword(s):  
Public Perception ◽  
Public Support ◽  
Leadership Role ◽  
Land Grant ◽  
Agricultural Community ◽  
Self Interest ◽  
Practical Education ◽  
Challenges And Opportunities ◽  
Colleges Of Agriculture ◽  
Post Industrial

AbstractThis paper examines what land grant colleges of agriculture were designed to be and do and, using their published mission statements, discusses what they now claim to be and do. Teaching ‘such branches of learning as are related to the agriculture and the mechanic arts’ and ‘to promote the liberal and practical education of the industrial classes’ is what land grant colleges were designed to do; it is the land grant mission. The paper asks whether these things are what land grant colleges of agriculture do now. The original mission has been amended with new challenges that must be met in a time of declining public support for higher education, societal distrust of science and a negative public perception of agricultural technology, in a culture that wants cheap food. The agricultural community, including colleges of agriculture, has been slow to accept the challenges and opportunities inherent in the questions agriculture now faces. Agriculture remains an essential human activity in our post-industrial, information-age society. Colleges of agriculture are in trouble, and this paper suggests that the sensible thing to do may be to turn away from self-interest in survival to take a leadership role with emphasis on the obligations of service and humanism.

Escaping the Curse of Economic Self-interest: An Individual-level Analysis of Public Support for the Welfare State in Japan

2013 ◽  
Vol 43 (1) ◽  
pp. 109-133 ◽  
Author(s):  
TAKANORI SUMINO
Keyword(s):  
Welfare State ◽  
Social Trust ◽  
Negative Impact ◽  
Public Support ◽  
General Social Survey ◽  
Cost Benefit ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
Self Interest ◽  
The Welfare State

AbstractDespite the general consensus that individualistic utility-optimising behaviour reduces popular support for the welfare state, we still know little about how and to what extent such negative effects of self-interested calculus are mediated by other attitudinal factors, particularly solidaristic values and principles. Using individual-level data from the Japanese General Social Survey, this study seeks not only to qualify existing findings on welfare preference formation but also to explore the hypothesis that the negative impact of economic self-interest is offset or moderated by solidarity-oriented values and beliefs. The author finds that the oft-made claim that material interest and individualistic ideologies undermine welfare support can be replicated in the context of Japan. The results also provide evidence in support of the liberal nationalist contention that popular discourse on welfare is significantly directed by a sense of national unity. Data from Japan also elucidate the fact that a strong sense of social trust significantly weakens the salience of self-oriented cost–benefit calculations. These findings suggest that solidarity-related variables such as national identity and interpersonal trustworthiness should receive more attention in future research on welfare attitudes.

scholarly journals The Effect of Message Frames on Public Attitudes Toward Criminal Justice Reform for Nonviolent Offenses

2017 ◽  
Vol 63 (5) ◽  
pp. 636-656 ◽  
Author(s):  
Aaron Gottlieb
Keyword(s):  
Criminal Justice ◽  
Regression Models ◽  
Public Attitudes ◽  
Public Support ◽  
Criminal Justice Policy ◽  
Amazon Mechanical Turk ◽  
Logistic Regression Models ◽  
Criminal Justice Reform ◽  
Self Interest ◽  
Message Frames

In recent years, the rhetoric surrounding criminal justice policy has increasingly emphasized reform, rather than being “tough on crime.” Although this change in rhetoric is aimed at building public support for reform, little is known about its efficacy. To test the efficacy of reform rhetoric, I conducted an Internet experiment using Amazon Mechanical Turk. Respondents were randomly assigned to one of six message conditions or to a control condition (no message) and then asked their views about eliminating the use of incarceration for select nonviolent offenses. Results from ordinal logistic regression models suggest that message frames that appeal to a respondent’s self-interest or emphasize the unfairness of the punishment (not who is punished) tend to be most effective.

Self-interest, partisanship, and the conditional influence of taxation on support for war in the USA

2015 ◽  
Vol 35 (1) ◽  
pp. 43-64 ◽  
Author(s):  
Douglas Kriner ◽  
Breanna Lechase ◽  
Rosella Cappella Zielinski
Keyword(s):  
Public Support ◽  
Policy Preferences ◽  
Level Variation ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
The Public ◽  
Self Interest ◽  
Survey Experiments ◽  
Negative Effect ◽  
The Usa ◽  
The Individual

Does the imposition of taxation inevitably erode public support for war? Through a pair of survey experiments we show that whether a war tax decreases public support for military action critically depends on the design of the taxation instrument itself. Broad-based, regressive taxes decrease support for war; progressive taxes targeted on the wealthy do not. We also uncover the mechanisms through which Americans incorporate information about war taxation into their wartime policy preferences. Economic self-interest, alone, cannot explain the individual-level variation in reactions to war taxation. Rather, Americans assess war taxation both through the lens of economic self-interest and by using partisan heuristics. The negative effect of taxation on war support is both conditional on the design of the taxation instrument and variable across segments of the public.

scholarly journals Strong Welfare States Do Not Intensify Public Support for Income Redistribution, but Even Reduce It among the Prosperous: A Multilevel Analysis of Public Opinion in 30 Countries

Societies ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 8 (4) ◽  
pp. 105 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. Evans ◽  
Jonathan Kelley
Keyword(s):  
Welfare State ◽  
Multilevel Model ◽  
Reference Group ◽  
Public Support ◽  
Income Redistribution ◽  
Welfare States ◽  
Group Solidarity ◽  
Income Distributions ◽  
Self Interest ◽  
The Welfare State

How tightly linked are the strength of a country’s welfare state and its residents’ support for income redistribution? Multilevel model results (with appropriate controls) show that the publics of strong welfare states recognize their egalitarian income distributions, i.e., the stronger the welfare state, the less the actual and perceived inequality; but they do not differ from their peers in liberal welfare states/market-oriented societies in their preferences for equality. Thus, desire for redistribution bears little overall relationship to welfare state activity. However, further investigation shows a stronger relationship under the surface: Poor people’s support for redistribution is nearly constant across levels of welfarism. By contrast, the stronger the welfare state, the less the support for redistribution among the prosperous, perhaps signaling “harvest fatigue” due to paying high taxes and longstanding egalitarian policies. Our findings are not consistent with structuralist/materialist theory, nor with simple dominant ideology or system justification arguments, but are partially consistent with a legitimate framing hypothesis, with an atomistic self-interest hypothesis, with a reference group solidarity hypothesis, and with the “me-and-mine” hypothesis incorporating sociotropic and egotropic elements. Database: the World Inequality Study: 30 countries, 71 surveys, and over 88,0000 individuals.

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