Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/102558 
Year of Publication: 
2014
Series/Report no.: 
Economics Discussion Papers No. 2014-35
Publisher: 
Kiel Institute for the World Economy (IfW), Kiel
Abstract: 
The authors introduce a simple model of public preferences on poverty assistance. Their focus is on the roles played by the socioeconomic status of a potential welfare recipient and the stereotypes about his/her ethnic group in shaping taxpayers' preferences on appropriate assistance. The model assumes that status not only informs one about the recipient's material needs but also sends noisy signals about his/her 'deservingness'. Ethnic stereotypes about work ethic, in turn, help to process those noisy signals. The authors show that the influence of stereotypes on welfare preferences tends to diminish as the status of a potential recipient approaches middle-class standards. Their model points to the potential of institutional and media framing of poverty assistance in the ethnicization of welfare preferences.
Subjects: 
Poverty assistance
welfare preferences
social preferences
deservingness
stereotypes
JEL: 
H8
I3
Creative Commons License: 
cc-by Logo
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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