Redistribution in Whose Favor? Preferences with Regard to Types of Beneficiaries and Their Nationalities

The objective of this paper is to measure preferences for income redistribution through the public budget when recipients differ in terms of their 'degree of merit' (such as the working poor) and their nationalities. A discrete choice experiment (DCE) was performed involving a representative sample of 979 Swiss citizens, permitting to test a number of competing hypotheses about the demand for redistribution. The income tax to be paid as a share of income serves as the price attribute to derive marginal willingness-to-pay (MWTP) values. They are found to differ significantly between recipients' nationalities even before the acceleration of immigration after 2009 (Swiss, citizens of Western European countries, citizens of other countries) and their types (old-age pensioners, people in ill health, the unemployed, working poor, and families with children). Swiss citizens exhibit positive MWTP in favor of themselves or Western European citizens to the detriment of citizens of other countries, who are perceived to be culturally distant. JEL classification: C35, C93, C99, D12, D63, D64, H23, H53