Overall, the study suggests that government quality increases the heterogeneity of public opinion on redistribution. It serves as a wedge that drives attitude variance between those who have more/less to gain from redistribution (both materially and ideologically).
The results primarily support the expectation that, under higher government quality, the opponents of income equalization fear the effectiveness and impartiality of redistribution, thus turning against government action compared to countries with less government quality.
Assuming that public opinion affects politics and policies, this suggests that the economic left-right conflict is stronger in countries with higher government quality and weaker in those with less government quality.
For example, research shows that government quality increases voter turnout of the rich and voting across class lines. My study serves as a micro-level foundation for this.
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@pavisuri.bsky.social
https://www.tandfonline.com/eprint/JN5C9HPWHHZWV2RJVKR4/full?target=10.1080/17457289.2024.2352451
A preprint and a full replication package are available on my website (https://leoahrens.eu/publications).