45 Pages Posted: 13 Dec 2019 Last revised: 13 Jul 2020

Date Written: July 3, 2020

Abstract

I conduct a survey experiment to test how individuals' preferences for redistributive policies respond to news of their vulnerability to an automation-induced labor market shock. As respondents feel more vulnerable, their preferences for redistributive policies remain constant or decline. However, introducing rhetoric that causes respondents to view automation-induced inequality as unfair increases preferences for several redistributive policies. The effects are pronounced among more-educated respondents - a group expected to increasingly be affected by automation in future. This suggests that, going forward, rhetoric may become increasingly influential in terms of the political viability of a redistributive policy response to automation.