Informal institutions and demand for income redistribution

This thesis studies the relationship between the informal institutions represented by religiousness, the way of understanding religion, the control over life and the preferences for income redistribution by state. Influence of informal institutions on preferences for income redistribution was confirmed by using multinomial logistic regression, contingency table, as well as cluster analysis. Results from empirical analysis suggest a polarization of religious people into those with positive preferences and those with negative preferences towards income redistribution. Most of the recent studies that were geographically defined claimed a rather negative preferences of religious people towards income redistribution by the state. Understanding religion as following norms and ceremonies, as well as high perception of life control lead to rather negative preferences towards income redistribution. Understanding religion as doing good to other people as well as low perception of life control lead to rather positive preferences towards income redistribution by the state