Work

Social‐benefits stigma and subsequent competitiveness

Year: 2025

Type: article

Abstract: We conduct a laboratory experiment to explore how benefit‐eligibility stigma drives subsequent decisions to enter competition. We induce a stigma associated with a low‐status benefit and then introduce “plausible deniability” to reduce this stigma by expanding benefit eligibility to a middle‐status group. When newly‐eligible individuals qualify for the benefit, their rate of entry into a subsequent and unrelated tournament is reduced by 17–20 percentage points compared to the treatment in which they do not qualify. A potential interpretation of our results would suggest expanding for certain government assistance programs may produce unintended consequences for the newly eligible.

Source: Economic Inquiry

DOI: 10.1111/ecin.13293

Authors: Natalia I. Valdez Gonzalez, Alexander L. Brown, Marco A. Palma

Institutions: Universitat de Barcelona, Texas A&M University

Language: English

Topic: Experimental Behavioral Economics Studies

Subfield: Safety Research

Field: Social Sciences

Domain: Social Sciences

SDGs: Reduced inequalities, Peace, justice, and strong institutions

Open Access status: hybrid

Estimated APC paid: $3,400