FAIR Seminar: Jana Friedrichsen Social image concerns and welfare take-up

FAIR-The Choice Lab invites you to a seminar with Jana Friedrichsen, postdoctoral research fellow at Humbolt University Berlin

Time: 12 October 2017 12:15 - 13:15
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Friedrichsen's personal website

The article is written jointly with Tobias König and Renke Schmacker.

Abstract:
Using a laboratory experiment, we present first evidence that social image concerns causally reduce the take-up of an individually beneficial transfer. This reduction is not only statistically but also economically significant and amounts to 30 percentage points. Our design manipulates the informativeness of the take-up decision by varying whether transfer eligibility is based on ability or luck, and how the transfer is financed. We find that subjects avoid the inference both of being low-skilled (ability stigma) and of being willing to live off others (moral stigma). Using a placebo treatment, we exclude other explanations for the observed stigma effects.

Abstract:

Using a laboratory experiment, we present first evidence that social image concerns causally reduce the take-up of an individually beneficial transfer. This reduction is not only statistically but also economically significant and amounts to 30 percentage points. Our design manipulates the informativeness of the take-up decision by varying whether transfer eligibility is based on ability or luck, and how the transfer is financed. We find that subjects avoid the inference both of being low-skilled (ability stigma) and of being willing to live off others (moral stigma). Using a placebo treatment, we exclude other explanations for the observed stigma effects.

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