The Widening Gap in Tax Attitudes: Role of Government Trust in the post COVID-19 period

Abstract

This study investigates shifts in acceptable tax rate for reducing inequality during the COVID-19 pandemic using Japanese data. We find a transition from norm-based, unconditional support for redistribution to conditional altruism. Before the pandemic, support remained high and independent of institutional trust. The pandemic generated an overall decline in altruistic attitudes while increasing their dependence on trust in government, particularly among high-income individuals. This "widening gap" implies that in post-crisis societies, the social contract is no longer anchored in stable social norms but increasingly relies on institutional trust to sustain income redistribution from the rich to the poor.