Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/316944 
Year of Publication: 
2025
Series/Report no.: 
CESifo Working Paper No. 11830
Publisher: 
CESifo GmbH, Munich
Abstract: 
Why is in-kind aid a prominent feature of welfare systems? We present a lab-in-the-field experiment involving members of the general U.S. population and SNAP recipients. After documenting a widespread desire to limit recipients' choices, we quantify the relative importance of (i) welfarist motives, (ii) utility or disutility derived from curtailing another's autonomy, and (iii) absolutist attitudes concerning the appropriate form of aid. Choices primarily reflect the two non-welfarist motives. Because people systematically misperceive recipient preferences, their interventions are more restrictive than they intend. Interventionist preferences and non-welfarist motives are more pronounced among the political right, particularly when recipients are black.
Subjects: 
in-kind aid
paternalism
welfare transfers
SNAP
food stamps.
JEL: 
D04
D63
D91
H53
I38
Document Type: 
Working Paper
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