Preferences for redistribution and inequality in well-being across Europe

The paper provides measures of inequality in individual well-being by using a normative multidimensional approach. A distinctive contribution of the study is to consider heterogeneous inequality aversion parameters, estimated on the basis of country-specific tax structures. The empirical analysis is carried out for 26 European countries and focuses on three crucial dimensions of individual well-being: income, health and education. Results highlight how this approach provides a flexible and transparent analytical tool which allows explicitly accounting for social preferences about inequality tolerability and well-being dimensions in the design and assessment of redistributive policies.