Inequality perceptions, fairness beliefs, and redistributive preferences

Abstract

This dissertation examines how perceived distributive fairness relates to redistributive preferences in Asia, and how COVID-period economic hardship is associated with changes in these attitudes. Using repeated cross-sectional data from the Asian Barometer Survey, Waves 4–6 (2014–2023), the thesis defines fairness perceptions narrowly as respondents’ assessment of whether income distribution in their country is fair. Chapter 2 shows that individuals who perceive income distribution as fair are less supportive of government redistribution, using OLS regressions with country and wave fixed effects. The reversed specification is treated only as a descriptive check, not as evidence of causal direction. Chapter 3 applies a reduced-form Difference-in-Differences design to a restricted nine-country COVID sample. Realised pandemic hardship, measured through country-level job and income loss, is more clearly associated with increased redistributive demand than with a precisely estimated decline in fairness perceptions. Chapter 4 extends the analysis using triple differences across age, income, and education. The results suggest that redistribution responses were socially uneven, while fairness responses were weaker and less precise. Overall, the thesis shows that distributive politics in Asia depends not only on material hardship, but also on how citizens judge the fairness of income differences and government redistribution.