My general take on “A dollar means more to a poor person than it does to a rich person” is that, unless the respondents were chosen only from the subset of people with a basic grounding in economics” the researchers likely felt that they could not use the statement “The marginal value of an additional dollar is greater to a poor person than in it is to a rich person” because they could not assume that respondents would understand the concept of marginal value. Possibly just mind projection on my part, but that is what I assume this statement was supposed to “translate” to.
Of course, the fact that we have do discuss the meaning of the statement is already evidence that the researcher assumed to much when creating the question.
Anecdotally, I have on numerous occasions encountered arguments against redistributive taxation based solely on deadweight loss (ignoring the declining marginal value of the dollar), so the mistake in question certainly exists. It’s difficult to say how much more it exists among conservatives and libertarians than among liberals, however, because conservatives/libertarians and liberals are likely to have divergent opinions about redistributive taxation anyway for tribal and other reasons.
I interpret the gun control proposition using a supply-and-demand model. Legal prohibition increases costs for producers (and to some extent for consumers) -- the costs associated with evading enforcement. These costs function like a tax, shifting the supply curve. Since this results in less total guns being sold, I take the proposition to be false.
My general take on “A dollar means more to a poor person than it does to a rich person” is that, unless the respondents were chosen only from the subset of people with a basic grounding in economics” the researchers likely felt that they could not use the statement “The marginal value of an additional dollar is greater to a poor person than in it is to a rich person” because they could not assume that respondents would understand the concept of marginal value. Possibly just mind projection on my part, but that is what I assume this statement was supposed to “translate” to.
Of course, the fact that we have do discuss the meaning of the statement is already evidence that the researcher assumed to much when creating the question.
Anecdotally, I have on numerous occasions encountered arguments against redistributive taxation based solely on deadweight loss (ignoring the declining marginal value of the dollar), so the mistake in question certainly exists. It’s difficult to say how much more it exists among conservatives and libertarians than among liberals, however, because conservatives/libertarians and liberals are likely to have divergent opinions about redistributive taxation anyway for tribal and other reasons.
I interpret the gun control proposition using a supply-and-demand model. Legal prohibition increases costs for producers (and to some extent for consumers) -- the costs associated with evading enforcement. These costs function like a tax, shifting the supply curve. Since this results in less total guns being sold, I take the proposition to be false.