Given the high degree of responsiveness of fiscal and tax policies to voters’ preferences, understanding support for redistribution is key to economic policy. Hence, this policy paper uses a Randomized Control Trial (RCT) to explore the effects of information on social mobility perceptions and preferences for redistribution (progressive taxation, capital taxes, and government spending on education, health care, and safety net) in Portugal.
Inspired by the work of Alesina et al.(2018) in France, Italy, Sweden, the United Kingdom, and the United States, this paper allows a cross-country comparison about social mobility beliefs, preferences towards redistribution, and how information shapes those beliefs and preferences.