Public economics, political economics, behavioural economics c[dot]de-meulenaer[at]lse.ac.ukcopy
/klo-eh duh mö-luh-nar/
I'm a PhD student in economics at the London School of Economics. My research lies at the intersection of public, behavioural, and political economics. I use custom surveys to explore the formation of policy preferences towards inequality reduction, and the mechanisms underlying those preferences.
I am especially interested in understanding the disconnect between the policies that economists identify as optimal, the policies that citizens support, and the policies that governments implement.
We use natural language processing to classify all pro-redistributive speeches in the U.S. Congress and Norwegian Parliament from 2015 to 2022, contrasting arguments based on fairness with those based on the negative societal consequences of inequality (inequality externalities). Fairness-based arguments are markedly more emotional—especially expressing anger and compassion—while externality-based arguments are more analytical and frequently draw on empirical evidence. Pro-redistributive arguments in the U.S. primarily focus on fairness, whereas externality concerns are a central feature of the Norwegian debate. In an experiment, both types of arguments are similarly convincing to U.S. survey respondents, although a preference for fairness is linked to lower educational attainment. Our results document two distinct ways to argue for redistribution, whose prevalence differs across countries, and provide a general framework for comparing the content and evaluations of arguments across domains.
Attitudes towards the inheritance tax and demand for redistribution(working paper on request)
I use new survey data from France to explore attitudes towards the inheritance tax and demand for redistribution. Although the inheritance tax is very unpopular, respondents show significant support for redistributive forms of taxation, namely for taxing capital income and the bequests of parents who have themselves inherited. I also find that a large share of the variation in support for the inheritance tax is explained by whether participants believe that taxes mostly enhance fairness or harm the economy. This suggests that some respondents' apparently low demand for redistribution may stem from their lack of trust in the power of taxes to effectively redistribute. I then analyze how these preferences shift when exposed to two arguments: one highlighting wealth inequality, the other defending parents' right to bequeath their hard-earned savings. The inequality argument increases support for the inheritance and capital income taxes. Surprisingly, the second argument also increases support for the capital income tax and mildly increases support for the inheritance tax. I interpret this last finding as evidence of backfiring, echoing the strong political polarization on the topic of the inheritance tax.
Work in progress
What's in it for me? Attitudes, beliefs, and support for economic policies
Why do individuals support some inequality-reducing policies while opposing others? This paper shows that heterogeneity in beliefs about policies’ distributional and macroeconomic effects is a central determinant of support, above and beyond attitudes, such as concern about inequality or trust in government. I develop a simple framework in which policy support depends on perceived self-interest, perceived effects on others' welfare, and perceived effects on the macroeconomy. I test this framework using a large, nationally representative survey of French citizens covering twelve predistributive, tax, and spending policies. Beliefs alone explain over a quarter of the variation in policy support and outperform demographics, political ideology, and standard attitudinal measures. Differences in beliefs account for most of the preference for predistribution over redistribution and explain nearly half of the partisan gap in support for inequality-reducing policies. Providing research-based information on policies’ effects increases support, particularly among right-leaning and high-income respondents, leading to depolarisation. These findings identify beliefs rather than attitudes as a key margin shaping demand for economic policies.
Perceptions of tax evasion and tax enforcement with Daniel Reck
