The Jordanian middle class would tolerate increased taxation to benefit the needy, as long as the process is transparent. The game was conducted as part of a World Bank report that I edited, "Inclusion and Resilience: The Way Forward for Social Safety Nets in the Middle East and North Africa." "Citizens with low trust in effective delivery of public resources were significantly less altruistic in the control group. Moreover, they tended to have a stronger preference for food rather than cash than other citizens. "The game also showed that allowing for monitoring of benefit delivery improved donations among two groups: the youth and the low-trust participants, suggesting that enhancing credibility through transparency measures is an important element in increasing the support for SSN [social safety net] reform, particularly for the middle-class population that was at the center in the Arab Spring. . . . "In order to pay for redistribution, for instance through higher commodity prices, people would want to see the impact of their sacrifices on the ground, and be able to monitor who reaps the benefits of a reform."
Posted on: Thu, 18 Jul 2013 18:59:51 +0000