Perception of corruption and public support for redistribution in Latin America

This paper studies the relationship between people’s beliefs about the quality of their institutions, as measured by corruption perceptions, and preferences for redistribution in Latin America. Our empirical study is guided by a theoretical model which introduces taxes into Foellmi and Oechslin’s (2...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores: Hauk, Esther, Oviedo, Mónica, Ramos, Xavier
Tipo de recurso: artículo
Estado:Versión publicada
Fecha de publicación:2022
País:España
Institución:Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC)
Repositorio:DIGITAL.CSIC. Repositorio Institucional del CSIC
OAI Identifier:oai:digital.csic.es:10261/279414
Acceso en línea:http://hdl.handle.net/10261/279414
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palabra clave:Preference for redistribution
Corruption perceptions
Political trust
Bribery
Latin America
Descripción
Sumario:This paper studies the relationship between people’s beliefs about the quality of their institutions, as measured by corruption perceptions, and preferences for redistribution in Latin America. Our empirical study is guided by a theoretical model which introduces taxes into Foellmi and Oechslin’s (2007) general equilibrium model of non-collusive corruption. In this model perceived corruption influences people’s preferences for redistribution through two channels. On the one hand it undermines trust in government, which reduces people’s support for redistribution. On the other hand, more corruption decreases own wealth relative to average wealth of below-average-wealth individuals leading to a higher demand for redistribution. Thus, the effect of perceived corruption on redistribution cannot be signed a priori. Our novel empirical findings for Latin America suggest that perceiving corruption in the public sector increases people’s support for redistribution. Although the wealth channel dominates in the data, we also find evidence for the trust channel — from corruption to demand for redistribution via reduced trust.