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Beliefs About the Rich, the Poor and the Taxes They Pay
Author(s) -
Williamson John B.
Publication year - 1976
Publication title -
american journal of economics and sociology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.199
H-Index - 38
eISSN - 1536-7150
pISSN - 0002-9246
DOI - 10.1111/j.1536-7150.1976.tb01208.x
Subject(s) - socioeconomic status , metropolitan area , economics , demographic economics , ideology , public economics , demography , political science , geography , politics , sociology , law , population , archaeology
A bstract . Beliefs about tax burdens are frequently distorted in the direction of the believer's economic self‐interest, according to a study of 300 White women in the Boston Standard Metropolitan Statistical Area, of 50 of their husbands in a matched pairs analysis and of 25 Black women. Socioeconomic status is a consistently stronger predictor of the federal tax burden than is ideology, but neither is effective. The federal income tax component of the total tax burden is consistently overestimated. But there is a general tendency to underestimate the total tax burden of the poor.