ABSTRACT

Observers have noted that New Zealanders are less inequality averse and less in favour of redistribution than one would expect given actual levels of income and wealth inequality in the country. Attempted explanations have been unsatisfying, partly because of a lack of an explicit comparative focus. This paper uses four waves of the World Value Survey (2000–2020) and compares New Zealand views with those of respondents in 18 other high-income OECD states. New Zealanders across the board are indeed outliers, but this is explained by the extensive experience of intergenerational educational mobility of successive NZ cohorts. New Zealanders also believe that their society is characterised by a large degree of equality of opportunity and this overrides any concern that they might have about inequality of outcomes. While there may also be other ideational and institutional factors to consider, a series of hierarchical binomial logit regressions confirm that experiences and perceptions of upward mobility must be part of any explanation of New Zealand idiosyncrasies.

摘要

观察人士指出，考虑到新西兰的实际收入和财富不平等水平，新西兰人对不平等的厌恶程度和支持程度低于人们的预期。尝试的解释并不令人满意，部分原因是缺乏明确的比较重点。本文使用世界价值调查 (2000-2020) 的四次浪潮，并将新西兰的观点与其他 18 个高收入经合组织国家的受访者的观点进行比较。全面的新西兰人确实是局外人，但这可以通过连续新西兰队列的代际教育流动的丰富经验来解释。新西兰人还认为，他们的社会在很大程度上以机会平等为特征，这超越了他们对结果不平等的任何担忧。