Bribes in Social Services and Redistributive Preferences in Latin America

What are the effects of paying bribes for public social services on citizens' redistributive preferences? Research about social policies feedback effects has focused on developed countries and has ignored the role of corruption experiences in redistributive preferences in developing nations. Redistribution requires state capacity. Paying bribes to use social services undermines confidence in state capacity to provide redistributive social services with impartiality in the future. Analysis of six waves of Latin American Public Opinion Project (lapop) surveys in 18 Latin American countries shows that individuals who had to pay bribes to access social services are less inclined to support redistribution and the public provision of health services and that these effects are stronger among poor users.