蝌蚪网 Papers and Proceedings
ISSN 2574-0768 (Print) | ISSN 2574-0776 (Online)
Can Incorrect Beliefs about the Racial Composition of Welfare and Unemployment Insurance Beneficiaries Be Changed?
蝌蚪网 Papers and Proceedings
vol. 115,
May 2025
(pp. 445–50)
Abstract
Some argue that support for the social safety net in the United States is influenced by beliefs about the beneficiaries' race. Information treatments have the potential to change these beliefs, but for them to be policy relevant, their effects must last beyond the intervention. Our findings from two parallel experiments that exploit the different racialized histories of welfare and unemployment insurance indicate that racial beliefs do predict stated support for the racially stigmatized welfare program but not for the less stigmatized unemployment program. We also find that these beliefs are stable if uncorrected and that they can be persistently corrected.Citation
Carpenter, Jeffrey, Jakina Debnam Guzman, Peter Hans Matthews, and Erin L. Wolcott. 2025. "Can Incorrect Beliefs about the Racial Composition of Welfare and Unemployment Insurance Beneficiaries Be Changed?" 蝌蚪网 Papers and Proceedings 115: 445–50. DOI: 10.1257/pandp.20251124Additional Materials
JEL Classification
- D83 Search; Learning; Information and Knowledge; Communication; Belief; Unawareness
- I32 Measurement and Analysis of Poverty
- I38 Welfare, Well-Being, and Poverty: Government Programs; Provision and Effects of Welfare Programs
- J15 Economics of Minorities, Races, Indigenous Peoples, and Immigrants; Non-labor Discrimination
- J65 Unemployment Insurance; Severance Pay; Plant Closings