Seminars & Events
SEMINAR: dr. Johanna Gereke – Signing for Solidarity? A Field- and Survey Experiment on Ethnic Diversity and Welfare Policy Petitions in Denmark
Abstract: A long-standing debate in welfare state research asks whether immigration-driven ethnic diversity erodes public support for redistribution. A leading argument holds that as ethno-racial minorities are perceived to swell the ranks as ‘undeserving’ welfare beneficiaries, diversity reduces public support for welfare spending and/or spur efforts to exclude minorities from welfare programs (i.e., welfare chauvinism). Yet, despite extensive research, empirical evidence remains inconclusive, largely because most studies rely on correlations between local diversity and survey measures of welfare attitudes. We advance this debate with a large-scale pre-registered field experiment conducted in the greater Copenhagen area, complemented by a parallel survey experiment. In the field, supermarket shoppers were invited to sign petitions either proposing a general increase in welfare benefits or the equalization of benefit levels between immigrants and long-term residents. Petition materials randomly varied the ethnic appearance (Arabic vs. Nordic) of a depicted welfare-receiving family, yielding a 2×2 factorial design. Experimental data were linked to neighborhood-level administrative records to assess contextual heterogeneity. Results from the field experiment with over 4000 observations show that support for increasing welfare benefits declines when recipients are portrayed as having an Arabic background, while support for equalizing benefits is lower overall and largely insensitive to ethnic cues. We find little evidence of moderation by neighborhood context or individual characteristics in the field or survey experiment. Overall, the study provides causal evidence on how policy framings shape redistributive behavior in a European welfare state.
Bio: Johanna Gereke is currently a research fellow at the Federal Institute for Population Research (BiB) and a postdoctoral fellow at the Mannheim Centre for European Social Research (MZES). Her current research focuses on intergroup relations, migration, discrimination and cooperative behavior in modern societies. Other research projects examine the perceptions and consequences of physical attractiveness. Her research draws on a range of experimental and quasi-experimental methods, including original lab-in-the-field, survey and field experiments.
Meeting ID: 312 075 594 573 8
Passcode: UL7kz7jQ