Very interesting to think about the implications of our work for Swiss politics, thanks!

Inheritance taxes are famously unpopular. Our findings suggest though that this--if progressively designed, as in the Swiss proposal--is not due to fears about economic harm.

Not when it comes to political feasibility, at least in democracies.

Fully agree, elites have many reasons and incentives to spread such beliefs, these might genuine or instrumental. However, we suspect that even progressive/left-wing actors underestimate the appeal of progressive taxation.

Thanks for reading this far. If you are interested in the full article, you can find it here, open access: cup.org/3JVuvHm

Implications: Elites might not only be wrong about the economics of progressive taxes—but also about their public appeal. Instead of sharing fears, the public might support progressive taxes because they believe it benefits the economy.

So yes, "tax your cake and grow it too!"

Why this matters: It challenges the assumption that public opinion mirrors elite fears of an equality-vs-growth trade-off.

Instead, many citizens buy into a dual benefit logic: progressive taxation => equality + growth.

Strikingly, beliefs in the dual benefit of progressive taxation cross ideological and economic divides.

Conservatives — and those affected by progressive taxes — do not share warnings about the economic danger of taxing the rich.

The big reveal: Most believe taxing the rich not only promotes equality — it also fosters growth. 📈

This "dual benefit" belief is strongest for income and inheritance taxes. People are more skeptical about corporate tax hikes.

We ran a large-scale survey during Germany’s 2021 national election. 🇩🇪🗳️

Respondents compared different tax-reform packages varying income, inheritance, and corporate taxes.

What would be your explanation for the effect of such a failure? The real one of course only occurred on Friday with the second vote, but there's not much to see there

will look into it

We political scientists? ;) There's undoubtedly some anticipation but I would think that most people only learned about it from the heavy media coverage following the vote

You mean differences in PTV? Which would you want to see?

Yes, seems to be a short-term effect indeed

We wondered about that too. Covariates are well-balanced, including vote choice in the previous election!