Lisa Windsteiger was honored with a Kurt Rothschild Prize 2018 for her study on “The Redistributive Consequences of Segregation”. The prize, which is awarded jointly by the SPÖ Parliamentary Club and the Karl Renner Institute, honors scientific work that provides new answers on the relevant economic policy issues of our time.

With Lisa Windsteiger, six other researchers were honored, the main prizewinner being the economist Heinz D. Kurz.

In “The Redistributive Consequences of Segregation” Lisa Windsteiger examines how the segregation of a society affects the perceived income distribution and the preferences for redistribution. Since most social interactions are with people similar to ourselves – boldly put, the poor come together mainly with other poor people and the rich mainly with other rich people – we are less sensitive to how people are doing outside our own social bubble. Lisa Windsteiger proves that people tend to underestimate income and wealth inequality and that – as a result of this misperception – the demand for redistribution is lower than it would be if people had a better picture of the income distribution within society.

The Kurt Rothschild Prize was established in 2016 by the SPÖ Parliamentary Club and the Karl Renner Institute in memory of the considerable achievements of Austrian Professor of Economics Kurt Rothschild.

Please find further information on the Kurt Rothschild Prize 2018 here:
https://www.renner-institut.at/kurt-rothschild-preis/preistraegerinnen-2018/

Lisa Windsteiger talks about her research in a video interview with the Karl Renner Institute:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B3ROSRnS24U

Guardian article on the research project “The Redistributive Consequences of Segregation”:
“How narrowing social circles create a more unequal world.”

Windsteiger, Lisa. “The Redistributive Consequences of Segregation”. Working Paper of the Max Planck Institute for Tax Law and Public Finance:
https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3091493

January 2019