Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/182223 
Year of Publication: 
2018
Series/Report no.: 
DIW Discussion Papers No. 1752
Publisher: 
Deutsches Institut für Wirtschaftsforschung (DIW), Berlin
Abstract: 
Using a laboratory experiment, we present first evidence that social image concerns causally reduce the take-up of an individually beneficial transfer. 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 (free-rider stigma). Using a placebo treatment, we exclude other explanations for the observed stigma effects. Although stigma reduces take-up, elicitation of political preferences reveals that only a minority of "taxpayers" vote for the public transfer.
Subjects: 
stigma
signaling
redistribution
non take-up
welfare program
JEL: 
C91
D03
H31
I38
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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