Arbeitspapier
Are some people more equal than others? Experimental evidence on group identity and income inequality
We investigate the effects of group identity and income inequality on social preferences and polarization by means of a laboratory experiment. We split our subjects into two populations: in-group (representing "natives") and out-group ("migrants"). In-group subjects repeatedly vote whether an unemployment insurance should cover all, some, or no members of their group. By means of a two-by-two design we disentangle the effect of group identity from those of income inequality. Among others, our experiment yields the following findings: (1) subjects tend to vote for less inclusive insurance schemes when they sample a higher chance of employment; however, (2) in-group subjects with an ex ante more beneficial distribution of employment chances - relative to the out-group - are less selfish and vote for more inclusive insurance schemes; (3) ex ante more beneficial relative employment chances of in-group subjects also leads to less polarization; and (4) revelation and priming of group identity does not lead to discrimination against out-group "migrants" but, on the contrary, can lead to more compassionate and inclusive attitudes.
- ISBN
-
978-3-943153-89-7
- Language
-
Englisch
- Bibliographic citation
-
Series: BERG Working Paper Series ; No. 168
- Classification
-
Wirtschaft
Design of Experiments: Laboratory, Group Behavior
Political Processes: Rent-seeking, Lobbying, Elections, Legislatures, and Voting Behavior
Economics of Minorities, Races, Indigenous Peoples, and Immigrants; Non-labor Discrimination
- Subject
-
Income Inequality
Political Polarization
Migration
Economic Voting Behavior
Group Identity
- Event
-
Geistige Schöpfung
- (who)
-
Lustenhouwer, Joep
Makarewicz, Tomasz
Peña, Juan Carlos
Proaño Acosta, Christian
- Event
-
Veröffentlichung
- (who)
-
Bamberg University, Bamberg Economic Research Group (BERG)
- (where)
-
Bamberg
- (when)
-
2021
- Handle
- Last update
-
10.03.2025, 11:41 AM CET
Data provider
ZBW - Deutsche Zentralbibliothek für Wirtschaftswissenschaften - Leibniz-Informationszentrum Wirtschaft. If you have any questions about the object, please contact the data provider.
Object type
- Arbeitspapier
Associated
- Lustenhouwer, Joep
- Makarewicz, Tomasz
- Peña, Juan Carlos
- Proaño Acosta, Christian
- Bamberg University, Bamberg Economic Research Group (BERG)
Time of origin
- 2021
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