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How Do Beliefs About the Gender Wage Gap Affect the Demand for Public Policy?

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  • Sonja Settele

    (Department of Economics, University of Copenhagen)

Abstract

I conduct a survey experiment to study the relationship between peo-ple’s beliefs about the size of the gender wage gap and their demand for policies aimed at mitigating it. Beliefs causally affect support for equal pay legislation and affirmative action programs, but cannot account for the polarization in policy views by partisanship and gender. Changes in policy demand seem to be driven by changes in beliefs about discrimina-tion in labor markets and fairness concerns, while self-interest appears less important. I provide evidence that pessimism about the effective-ness of government intervention limits the elasticity of policy demand to perceived wage differentials.

Suggested Citation

  • Sonja Settele, 2022. "How Do Beliefs About the Gender Wage Gap Affect the Demand for Public Policy?," ECONtribute Discussion Papers Series 179, University of Bonn and University of Cologne, Germany.
    • Handle: RePEc:ajk:ajkdps:179
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Cited by:

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    2. Riccardo Bruni & Alessandro Gioffré & Maria Marino, 2022. ""In-group bias in preferences for redistribution: a survey experiment in Italy"," IREA Working Papers 202223, University of Barcelona, Research Institute of Applied Economics, revised Nov 2023.
    3. Hermes, Henning & Legetporer, Philipp & Mierisch, Fabian & Schwerdt, Guido & Wiederhold, Simon, 2024. "Does information about inequality and discrimination in early child care affect policy preferences?," Working Papers 15, University of Konstanz, Cluster of Excellence "The Politics of Inequality. Perceptions, Participation and Policies".
    4. Aljosha Henkel & Ernst Fehr & Julien Senn & Thomas Epper, 2024. "Beliefs about Inequality and the Nature of Support for Redistribution," Working Papers 2024-iRisk-02, IESEG School of Management.
    5. Jana Schuetz, 2024. "Beliefs about the Gender Pension Gap," Jena Economics Research Papers 2024-004, Friedrich-Schiller-University Jena.
    6. Engel, Julia F. & Huber, Christoph & Nüß, Patrick, 2022. "Replication Report: How Do Beliefs About the Gender Wage Gap Affect the Demand for Public Policy?," I4R Discussion Paper Series 12, The Institute for Replication (I4R).
    7. Henning Hermes & Philipp Lergetporer & Fabian Mierisch & Guido Schwerdt & Simon Wiederhold, 2024. "Does Information about Inequality and Discrimination in Early Child Care Affect Policy Preferences?," CESifo Working Paper Series 10925, CESifo.
    8. Golin, M. & Rauh, C., 2022. "The Impact of Fear of Automation," Janeway Institute Working Papers 2229, Faculty of Economics, University of Cambridge.
    9. Dylan Balla-Elliott, 2023. "Identifying Causal Effects in Information Provision Experiments," Papers 2309.11387, arXiv.org, revised Nov 2023.
    10. Jessen, Lasse J. & Koehne, Sebastian & Nüß, Patrick & Ruhose, Jens, 2024. "Socioeconomic Inequality in Life Expectancy: Perception and Policy Demand," IZA Discussion Papers 16780, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    11. Vod Vilfort & Whitney Zhang, 2023. "Interpreting IV Estimators in Information Provision Experiments," Papers 2309.04793, arXiv.org, revised Sep 2023.
    12. Backhaus, Teresa & Schäper, Clara & Schrenker, Annekatrin, 2023. "Causal misperceptions of the part-time pay gap," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 83(C).
    13. Grewenig, Elisabeth & Lergetporer, Philipp & Simon, Lisa & Werner, Katharina & Woessmann, Ludger, 2023. "Can internet surveys represent the entire population? A practitioners’ analysis," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 78(C).
    14. Filip Pertold & Sofiana Sinani & Michal Soltes, 2023. "Gender Gap in Reported Childcare Preferences among Parents," CERGE-EI Working Papers wp770, The Center for Economic Research and Graduate Education - Economics Institute, Prague.
    15. Alessandra Casarico & Jana Schuetz & Silke Uebelmesser, 2024. "Gender Inequality over the Life Cycle, Information Provision and Policy Preferences," CESifo Working Paper Series 10916, CESifo.

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