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Meet the Oligarchs: Business Legitimacy, State Capacity and Taxation

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  • Rafael Di Tella
  • Juan Dubra
Abstract
We study the impact of two dimensions of trust, namely trust in business elites and trust in government, on policy preferences. Using a randomized online survey, we find that our two treatments are effective in changing trust in Major Companies and in Courts/Government. In contrast to previous work, we find that more trust causes a decline in desired taxes. This is particularly strong for our treatment decreasing trust in business elites, which causes an increase in desired taxes on the top 1% of 1.2 percentage points. The effect closes 14% of the gap in tax preferences between Democrats and Republicans, and is double that amount when trust in government is low. Similarly, more distrust leads to more desired regulation and less privatepublic sector meetings, a variable we argue is connected to State capacity. A model where people tax to punish corrupt business leaders (rather than to redistribute income) helps interpret these findings

Suggested Citation

  • Rafael Di Tella & Juan Dubra, 2016. "Meet the Oligarchs: Business Legitimacy, State Capacity and Taxation," Documentos de Trabajo/Working Papers 1607, Facultad de Ciencias Empresariales y Economia. Universidad de Montevideo..
    • Handle: RePEc:mnt:wpaper:1607
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    JEL classification:

    • H2 - Public Economics - - Taxation, Subsidies, and Revenue
    • K42 - Law and Economics - - Legal Procedure, the Legal System, and Illegal Behavior - - - Illegal Behavior and the Enforcement of Law
    • P16 - Political Economy and Comparative Economic Systems - - Capitalist Economies - - - Capitalist Institutions; Welfare State

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