Moving in parallel? Economic inequality and public demand for redistribution in unequal societies

Although extensive research indicates that economic inequality drives public demand for redistribution, longitudinal evidence of this association in unequal contexts remains scarce. Using pooled cross-sections of surveys from over 140,000 individuals consistently observed between 2008 and 2019, this study tests the inequality-redistribution nexus in Latin America. I examine both the general association between inequality and public demand for redistribution as well as the conditional effect of individual-level income. Main results suggest that public preferences over redistribution systematically react to rising inequality. Findings further indicate that this effect is consistent across income groups. In line with a growing body of work, public demand for state-led redistribution increases as inequality grows, holding household income constant, suggesting that individuals tend to update their redistributive preferences in parallel and the gap in support for redistribution among income groups is small given the region’s sharp levels of economic inequality.