Governments provide public goods and redistribute through taxation and spending. Policy choices often involve a trade-off between inequality and economic growth. This study digs into voters’ reasoning and preferences concerning the trade-offs between progressivity, efficiency and self-interest. We use a survey experiment in Brazil, Spain, and the US. We implement a conjoint experiment where we present pairs of hypothetical income tax policy proposals to survey participants featuring:

• Marginal tax rates across existing income brackets
• The effect of the tax policy on revenues
• The budgetary adjustment to those revenue changes
• Expected effect on economic growth

Each participant rates 8 pairs of proposals and makes a choice for each pair.
We are able to, first, quantify the trade-off between efficiency and redistribution using our survey experiment. We find that a) +1pp of economic growth is as preferred as a 10% increase in tax progressivity; b) those who care about growth and about progressivity are not the same people. Second, we identify that there is aversion to increasing taxes, driven by aversion to paying taxes. This depends on the purpose: education and cash transfers justify it (BR, ES); or lowering consumption taxes and debt (US). Third, we identify that progressivity preferences are driven by preferences for low tax rates for low incomes.
We estimate the heterogenous preferences depending on trust in the government and also on political ideology. We also aim to identify the group whose preferences align most closely with the policies that have been implemented