Access
Income mobility prospects affect individuals’ willingness to pay higher taxes, or give part of their income, to improve the public healthcare and public education systems. In line with the prospects of the upward mobility hypothesis, risk-willing individuals who expect to move far up the socio-economic ladder are less willing to pay compared with individuals who expect no upward transition. Consistent with a social insurance effect, risk-averse individuals who hold modest upward prospects are more willing to pay compared with individuals without upward prospects. These findings are based on more than 19,000 observations from the third round of the Life in Transition Survey.
Authors
Rasmus Wiese
Assistant Professor University of Groningen
Steffen Eriksen
Associate Professor University of Groningen
Journal article details
- DOI
- 10.1111/1475-5890.12359
- Publisher
- Institute for Fiscal Studies
- Issue
- Volume 45, Issue 1, pages 55-76
Suggested citation
Eriksen, S and Wiese, R. (2024). 'Willingness to pay for improved public education and public healthcare systems: the role of income mobility prospects' 45(1/), pp.55–76.
More from IFS
Understand this issue
If you can’t see it, you can’t be it: role models influence female junior doctors’ choice of medical specialty
24 April 2024
Sure Start achieved its aims, then we threw it away
15 April 2024
The NHS waiting list: when will it come down?
29 February 2024
Policy analysis
The past and future of UK health spending
14 May 2024
NHS spending has risen less quickly than was planned at the last election, despite the pandemic and record waiting lists
14 May 2024
Progression of nurses within the NHS
12 April 2024
Academic research
The role of hospital networks in individual mortality
13 May 2024
A senior doctor like me: Gender match and occupational choice
24 April 2024
Labour market inequality and the changing life cycle profile of male and female wages
15 April 2024