Microfoundation of Inequality and Redistribution: Evidence from China

• In Event: The Subjective Perception of Inequality, Status, and Insecurity

Abstract

Recent research has revealed that it is perceptive, rather than objective, inequality that predominantly shapes public views on social stratification and redistribution demands. However, the mechanisms by which perceptions of inequality are constructed and influences on politics remain unclear. This research aims to bridge the gap in this field, linking political economy with political psychology by focusing on a key mechanism in the construction of perceptive inequality: social comparison. Evidence from developed countries has shown that individuals referencing economically disparate others provide significant insights into their perceptions of the socioeconomic structure and their personal economic status. The rise of the Internet and social media has significantly increased the frequency and accessibility of such comparisons.

This study utilizes three waves of survey experiments with nationally representative samples from China to examine the influence of social comparison on public attitudes toward economic inequality and redistribution politics. China's unique regime and political context offer a distinctive opportunity to explore how public opinions shape politics beyond elections and to understand inequality and its political consequences in a non-Western society. The research also demonstrates that the impact of perceptive inequality extends beyond redistribution, influencing systemic perceptions of the government-public relationship, regime legitimacy, and potential implications for democratization.

Finally, this proposal combines survey data with original city-level panel data on income inequality. The integration seeks to uncover the mechanisms by which objective, macroeconomic conditions affect subjective, micro-level political cognition and judgments. By connecting macroeconomic realities with individual perceptions, this research aims to provide a comprehensive understanding of the intricate relationship between economic inequality, public opinion, and political processes.

Authors

• Yue Hu, Tsinghua University

• Xinyi Ye, Tsinghua