TY  - JOUR
AU  - Alesina,Alberto F.
AU  - Cozzi,Guido
AU  - Mantovan,Noemi
TI  - The Evolution of Ideology, Fairness and Redistribution
JF  - National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper Series
VL  - No. 15587
PY  - 2009
Y2  - December 2009
UR  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w15587
L1  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w15587.pdf
N1  - Author contact info:
Alberto F. Alesina
Department of Economics
Harvard University
Littauer Center 210
Cambridge, MA 02138
Tel: 617/495-8388
Fax: 617/495-7730
E-Mail: aalesina@harvard.edu

Guido Cozzi
University of St. Gallen
Switzerland
E-Mail: guido.cozzi@unisg.ch

Noemi Mantovan
University of Glasgow
Economics Department
Adam Smith Building
Glasgow, G12 8RT
United Kingdom
E-Mail: n.mantovan@bangor.ac.uk
AB  - Ideas about what is "fair" above and beyond the individual's position in the income ladder influence preferences for redistribution.  We study the dynamic evolution of different economies in which redistributive policies, perceptions of fairness, inequality and growth are jointly determined.  We show how including fairness explains various observed correlations between inequality, redistribution and growth. We also show how different beliefs about fairness can keep two otherwise identical countries in different development paths for a very long time.
ER  -