Does Information about Inequality and Discrimination in Early Child Care Affect Policy Preferences?

Hennig Hermes, Philipp Lergetporer (), Fabian Mierisch (), Guido Schwerdt and Simon Wiederhold ()
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Hennig Hermes: ifo Institute
Philipp Lergetporer: Technical University of Munich, TUM School of Management, Heilbronn & ifo Institute
Fabian Mierisch: Catholic University Eichstaett-Ingolstadt
Guido Schwerdt: University of Konstanz

Munich Papers in Political Economy from Munich School of Politics and Public Policy and the School of Management at the Technical University of Munich

Abstract: We investigate public preferences for equity-enhancing policies in access to early child care, using a survey experiment with a representative sample of the German population (n ≈ 4, 800). We observe strong misperceptions about migrant-native inequalities in early child care that vary by respondents’ age and right-wing voting preferences. Randomly providing information about the actual extent of inequalities has a nuanced impact on the support for equity-enhancing policy reforms: it increases support for respondents who initially underestimated these inequalities, and tends to decrease support for those who initially overestimated them. This asymmetric effect leads to a more consensual policy view, substantially decreasing the polarization in policy support between under- and overestimators. Our results suggest that correcting misperceptions can align public policy preferences, potentially leading to less polarized debates about how to address inequalities and discrimination.

Keywords: child care; policy support; information; inequality; discrimination; survey experiment (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C99 D83 I24 J13 J18 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 61 pages
Date: 2024-01
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-exp
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https://cms.mgt.tum.de/fileadmin/mgt.tum.de/facult ... e/33_HLMSS_FINAL.pdf

Related works:
Working Paper: Does Information about Inequality and Discrimination in Early Child Care Affect Policy Preferences? (2024)
Working Paper: Does Information about Inequality and Discrimination in Early Child Care Affect Policy Preferences? (2024)
Working Paper: Does information about inequality and discrimination in early child care affect policy preferences? (2024)
Working Paper: Does information about inequality and discrimination in early child care affect policy preferences? (2024)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:aiw:wpaper:33

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