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Can Incorrect Beliefs about the Racial Composition of Welfare and Unemployment Insurance Beneficiaries Be Changed?

Author

Listed:
  • Jeffrey Carpenter
  • Jakina Debnam Guzman
  • Peter Hans Matthews
  • Erin L. Wolcott

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.

Suggested Citation

  • Jeffrey Carpenter & Jakina Debnam Guzman & Peter Hans Matthews & Erin L. Wolcott, 2025. "Can Incorrect Beliefs about the Racial Composition of Welfare and Unemployment Insurance Beneficiaries Be Changed?," AEA Papers and Proceedings, American Economic Association, vol. 115, pages 445-450, May.
    • Handle: RePEc:aea:apandp:v:115:y:2025:p:445-50
    DOI: 10.1257/pandp.20251124
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    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • D83 - Microeconomics - - Information, Knowledge, and Uncertainty - - - Search; Learning; Information and Knowledge; Communication; Belief; Unawareness
    • I32 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Welfare, Well-Being, and Poverty - - - Measurement and Analysis of Poverty
    • I38 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Welfare, Well-Being, and Poverty - - - Government Programs; Provision and Effects of Welfare Programs
    • J15 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Economics of Minorities, Races, Indigenous Peoples, and Immigrants; Non-labor Discrimination
    • J65 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Mobility, Unemployment, Vacancies, and Immigrant Workers - - - Unemployment Insurance; Severance Pay; Plant Closings

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