New article by Floris Zoutman
The article "Revealed social preferences of Dutch political parties" has been accepted for publication in Journal of Public Economics.
Journal of Public Economics is on level 3 in the ABS Academic Journal Guide.
Jacobs, Bas, Egbert L. W. Jongen, and Floris T. Zoutman: Revealed social preferences of Dutch political parties, Journal of Public Economics, Online 24.08.2017.
Abstract
We measure the redistributive preferences of Dutch political parties using unique, detailed information from their election proposals. By employing the inverse optimal-tax method, we calculate the political weights across the income distribution for each political party. We find that all Dutch political parties give a higher political weight to middle incomes than to the poor. Moreover, the political weights of the rich are close to zero. Furthermore, we detect a strong political status quo bias as the political weights of all political parties hardly deviate from the weights implied by the pre-existing tax system. We argue that political-economy considerations are key in understanding these results.