Coalition formation in tax fairness judgements by combined income-asset status in the context of South Korea

초록

This study uses latent class analysis to map the structure of tax-burden perceptions across income strata and to test whether combined income-asset status gives rise to coalition patterns. Based on Korean panel data, respondents are classified into upper, middle and lower groups by joint income-asset deciles. Five latent classes emerge, and multinomial logistic models show that membership probabilities differ systematically between those above and below the middle-income/middle-asset reference group, reflecting distinct coalition alignments. Notably, support for welfare-financing tax increases is driven more strongly by membership in progressive perception classes than by income or assets alone; moreover, this multilevel coalition structure - spanning different income-asset combinations - reveals that asset holdings, particularly illiquid assets, play a crucial role in shaping tax fairness judgements beyond income considerations. These findings underscore the necessity of tax policies tailored to both income and asset dimensions.

키워드