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.
How do Americans argue in favor of redistribution, and which arguments actually persuade listeners? Using natural language processing, the full database of U.S. Congressional speeches from 2015–2022, and a survey experiment, we explore how types of arguments in favor of redistribution vary in content and audience reaction. We contrast fairness-based arguments with those that stress the harmful consequences of inequality ("inequality externalities"). Fairness arguments are much more common, divisive, and operate through emotions, while externality arguments are more likely to appeal to logic while seeking consensus. Although fairness arguments elicit greater outrage, they are not significantly more persuasive on average. We find evidence of an educational divide, as fairness arguments are more persuasive for less educated respondents, while legislators from highly educated districts make greater use of externality arguments. Our results show that these two types of arguments are functionally different, and provide the first broad, empirical map of the U.S. redistributive debate.
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
Taxes, transfers, and minimum wages: Preferences for redistribution and predistribution
Perceptions of tax evasion and tax enforcement with Daniel Reck
