Would the rich pay more in tax if public opinion decided?

My new article "Taxing the 1 per cent: Public Opinion vs Public Policy" is now available in FirstView at @BJPolS.

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Here's a thread 🧵 on the main findings https://t.co/gioy4q2CsWcambridge.org/core/journals/…
I explore this question in Norway via 3 studies.

In Study 1, I compare the evolution of the top marginal income tax rate over the past 50 years, with public opinion data.

The comparison shows that the dramatic cuts in the top rate were at odds with what the public wanted.

The graph below shows how well the richest Top 1% have done across different countries over the past 200 years.

Some interesting patterns explored in 🧵.
#dataviz In Russia🇷🇺, the income share of the Top 1% fell suddenly after the Russian Revolution of 1917, and stayed low during Soviet.

After the breakup of Soviet, it took under a decade (1990's) for Top 1% income share to reach _higher_ levels than during the days of the Tsars.

Global wealth inequality in 2021 visualized by comparing the bottom 80% with increasingly smaller groups at the top of the distribution. #dataviz

Map #1: In every single country, the top 5% owns more wealth than the bottom 80%. Map #2: In most countries (110/174), the top 1% owns more than the bottom 80%.