%0 Report
        %A Schwarze, Johannes
%A Härpfer, Marco
        %T Are People Inequality Averse, and Do They Prefer Redistribution by the State? Evidence From German Longitudinal Data on Life Satisfaction
        %D 2002
        %8 2002 Feb
        %I Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)
        %C Bonn
        %7 IZA Discussion Paper
        %N 430
        %U https://www.iza.org/publications/dp430
        %X We link life-satisfaction data to inequality of the pre-government income distribution at the
regional level, to estimate the degree of inequality aversion. In addition, we investigate
whether a reduction in inequality by the state increases individual well-being. We find that
Germans are inequality averse over the entire income distribution. However, inequality
reduction by the state does not increase well-being. On the contrary, inequality reduction
places something of an excess burden on middle-income earners. The paper uses data from
the German Socio-economic Panel Study (GSOEP) from 1985 to 1998.
        %K Inequality aversion
%K redistribution
%K life satisfaction
%K panel data