Tax exposure and political preferences

Working paper

In this paper we develop an argument about tax preferences that centers on the concept of tax expo- sure. We argue that rather than attitudes towards taxation being a simple linear function of individual income they may be discontinuous or nonlinear around income tax thresholds. Furthermore, tax prefer- ences depend on contexts - individuals will respond to the prevailing tax environment in terms of their likely exposure to changes in tax laws and to the partisan environment in terms of their expectations about the path of future taxation. We test these arguments using three datasets - a cross-national dataset of thirty countries between 1985 and 2017, a conjoint experiment in the United Kingdom, and a survey of tax preferences in the USA in 2018.

Authors: Ansell, B; Cansunar, A; Elkjær, M

• Publication status: Not published
• Language: English
• Keywords: SBTMR