Distributional preferences shape individual opinions and public policy concerning economic inequality and redistribution. We measured the distributional preferences of an elite cadre of Juris Doctor (J.D.) students at Yale Law School (YLS), a group that holds particular interest because they are likely to assume future positions of power and influence in American society.

We compared the preferences of this highly elite group of students to those of a sample drawn from the American Life Panel (ALP), a broad cross-section of Americans, and to the preferences of an intermediate elite drawn from the student body at the University of California, Berkeley (UCB).

Our findings indicate sharp differences in distributional preferences between subjects of varying degrees of eliteness. These results provide a starting point for future research on the distinct preferences of the elite and differences in distributional preferences across groups more generally.

From a policy perspective, our results suggest a new explanation for the modesty of the policy response to the rise in income inequality in the United States: Regardless of party, the policymaking elite is significantly more focused on efficiency vis-a-vis equality than is the U.S. public.