Preference for redistribution and institutional trust: Comparison before and after COVID-19 | Research Square window.SnipcartSettings = { analytics: { enabled: false } }; (function() { var accessVector = localStorage.getItem('access_vector') || ''; window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || []; if (accessVector) { window.dataLayer.push({ user: { profile: { profileInfo: { snid: accessVector } } } }); } })(); (function(w,d,s,l,i){w[l]=w[l]||[];w[l].push({'gtm.start':new Date().getTime(),event:'gtm.js'});var f=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],j=d.createElement(s),dl=l!='dataLayer'?'&l='+l:'';j.async=true;j.src='https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtm.js?id='+i+dl;f.parentNode.insertBefore(j,f);})(window,document,'script','dataLayer','GTM-K279D39R'); Browse Preprints In Review Journals COVID-19 Preprints AJE Video Bytes Research Tools Research Promotion AJE Professional Editing AJE Rubriq About Preprint Platform In Review Editorial Policies Our Team Advisory Board Help Center Sign In Submit a Preprint Cite Share Download PDF Research Article Preference for redistribution and institutional trust: Comparison before and after COVID-19 Eiji YAMAMURA, fumio OHTAKE This is a preprint; it has not been peer reviewed by a journal. https://doi.org/ 10.21203/rs.3.rs-8759096/v1 This work is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 License Status: Posted Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Abstract Using an individual-level panel dataset from Japan covering the period 2016–2024, we examined how the COVID-19 pandemic, as an unanticipated public crisis, affected preferences for income redistribution. Furthermore, we investigated how the association between redistribution preferences and trust in government changed before and after COVID-19. The major findings are as follows: (1) individuals in the high-income group are less likely to prefer redistribution after COVID 19 than before it; (2) the degree of decline in redistribution preference is lower when trust in government is higher; and (3) generalised trust and reciprocity did not influence the decline in preference. JEL classification. D63; D73; A13 Redistribution preference Institutional trust General trust Reciprocity COVID-19 Panel data Full Text Additional Declarations No competing interests reported. Cite Share Download PDF Status: Posted Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Research Square lets you share your work early, gain feedback from the community, and start making changes to your manuscript prior to peer review in a journal. As a division of Research Square Company, we’re committed to making research communication faster, fairer, and more useful. We do this by developing innovative software and high quality services for the global research community. Our growing team is made up of researchers and industry professionals working together to solve the most critical problems facing scientific publishing. Also discoverable on Platform About Our Team In Review Editorial Policies Advisory Board Help Center Resources Author Services Accessibility API Access RSS feed Manage Cookie Preferences © Research Square 2026 | ISSN 2693-5015 (online) Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information {"props":{"pageProps":{"initialData":{"identity":"rs-8759096","acceptedTermsAndConditions":true,"allowDirectSubmit":true,"archivedVersions":[],"articleType":"Research Article","associatedPublications":[],"authors":[{"id":587511242,"identity":"2138505b-8c14-4d4a-938e-f20b5cb48ce9","order_by":0,"name":"Eiji YAMAMURA","email":"data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAZAAAAAyAQMAAABI0h/eAAAABlBMVEX///8AAABVwtN+AAAACXBIWXMAAA7EAAAOxAGVKw4bAAAA9UlEQVRIiWNgGAWjYNACAxsGBmZkAQnCWtJI1sJwmBQnHT+d+OFDwXl7fnbeg58LGGoTG9gPP2Cw3IFHy5nczZIzDG4nzmzmS5aewXA8sYEnzYBB8gweLQdyN0jzGNxOMDjMYyDN++9YYgNDDgODZBseLeffbv79x+Ccvf1hHuPfPAxALfxvCGi5kbtNGmgX4wZmHjNpHoaaxAYJArZI3ni7zbLHIDlxxmEeM2sehgPGbRLPDA7g8wvf+dzNN378sbPn7z9jfJuHoU62nz/54WNJPCGmcACVf5iBDURKNuDWIo8mVwcmGT/i0TIKRsEoGAUjDgAAX3xORuagmgEAAAAASUVORK5CYII=","orcid":"","institution":"Seinan Gakuin University","correspondingAuthor":true,"prefix":"","firstName":"Eiji","middleName":"","lastName":"YAMAMURA","suffix":""},{"id":587511243,"identity":"d3e2949f-fbb7-4340-a3fd-f202af44b7e0","order_by":1,"name":"fumio OHTAKE","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"Osaka University","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"fumio","middleName":"","lastName":"OHTAKE","suffix":""}],"badges":[],"createdAt":"2026-02-01 23:08:28","currentVersionCode":1,"declarations":"","doi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-8759096/v1","doiUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-8759096/v1","draftVersion":[],"editorialEvents":[],"editorialNote":"","failedWorkflow":false,"files":[{"id":107479628,"identity":"34b68809-9932-4e12-9711-31686a8a9cfd","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2026-04-22 01:33:46","extension":"pdf","order_by":1,"title":"","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"manuscript-pdf","size":736813,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"","description":"","filename":"Submanu260203name.pdf","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-8759096/v1_covered_b96740ff-8e01-499f-9b7d-a78cbb94c684.pdf"}],"financialInterests":"No competing interests reported.","formattedTitle":"Preference for redistribution and institutional trust: Comparison before and after COVID-19","fulltext":[],"fulltextSource":"","fullText":"","funders":[],"hasAdminPriorityOnWorkflow":false,"hasManuscriptDocX":false,"hasOptedInToPreprint":true,"hasPassedJournalQc":"","hasAnyPriority":false,"hideJournal":true,"highlight":"","institution":"","isAcceptedByJournal":false,"isAuthorSuppliedPdf":true,"isDeskRejected":"","isHiddenFromSearch":false,"isInQc":false,"isInWorkflow":false,"isPdf":true,"isPdfUpToDate":true,"isWithdrawnOrRetracted":false,"journal":{"display":true,"email":"
[email protected]","identity":"researchsquare","isNatureJournal":false,"hasQc":true,"allowDirectSubmit":true,"externalIdentity":"","sideBox":"","snPcode":"","submissionUrl":"/submission","title":"Research Square","twitterHandle":"researchsquare","acdcEnabled":true,"dfaEnabled":false,"editorialSystem":"","reportingPortfolio":"","inReviewEnabled":false,"inReviewRevisionsEnabled":true},"keywords":"Redistribution preference, Institutional trust, General trust, Reciprocity, COVID-19, Panel data","lastPublishedDoi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-8759096/v1","lastPublishedDoiUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-8759096/v1","license":{"name":"CC BY 4.0","url":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/"},"manuscriptAbstract":"\u003cp\u003eUsing an individual-level panel dataset from Japan covering the period 2016–2024, we examined how the COVID-19 pandemic, as an unanticipated public crisis, affected preferences for income redistribution. Furthermore, we investigated how the association between redistribution preferences and trust in government changed before and after COVID-19. The major findings are as follows: (1) individuals in the high-income group are less likely to prefer redistribution after COVID 19 than before it; (2) the degree of decline in redistribution preference is lower when trust in government is higher; and (3) generalised trust and reciprocity did not influence the decline in preference.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eJEL classification. D63; D73; A13\u003c/p\u003e","manuscriptTitle":"Preference for redistribution and institutional trust: Comparison before and after COVID-19","msid":"","msnumber":"","nonDraftVersions":[{"code":1,"date":"2026-02-09 17:07:31","doi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-8759096/v1","editorialEvents":[{"type":"communityComments","content":0}],"status":"published","journal":{"display":true,"email":"
[email protected]","identity":"researchsquare","isNatureJournal":false,"hasQc":true,"allowDirectSubmit":true,"externalIdentity":"","sideBox":"","snPcode":"","submissionUrl":"/submission","title":"Research Square","twitterHandle":"researchsquare","acdcEnabled":true,"dfaEnabled":false,"editorialSystem":"","reportingPortfolio":"","inReviewEnabled":false,"inReviewRevisionsEnabled":true}}],"origin":"","ownerIdentity":"8fc85de5-8b41-4829-afaf-6f7999e5fe06","owner":[],"postedDate":"February 9th, 2026","published":true,"recentEditorialEvents":[],"rejectedJournal":[],"revision":"","amendment":"","status":"posted","subjectAreas":[],"tags":[],"updatedAt":"2026-04-25T12:38:34+00:00","versionOfRecord":[],"versionCreatedAt":"2026-02-09 17:07:31","video":"","vorDoi":"","vorDoiUrl":"","workflowStages":[]},"version":"v1","identity":"rs-8759096","journalConfig":"researchsquare"},"__N_SSP":true},"page":"/article/[identity]/[[...version]]","query":{"redirect":"/article/rs-8759096","identity":"rs-8759096","version":["v1"]},"buildId":"XKTyCvWXoU3ODBz1xrDgd","isFallback":false,"isExperimentalCompile":false,"dynamicIds":[84888],"gssp":true,"scriptLoader":[]}
Text is read by the "Ask this paper" AI Q&A widget below.
Extraction quality varies by source — PMC NXML preserves structure
cleanly, OA-HTML may include some navigation residue, and OA-PDF can
have broken hyphenation. The publisher copy
(via DOI)
is the canonical version.