Information about Inequality in Early Child Care Reduces Polarization in Policy Preferences

Henning Hermes, Philipp Lergetporer, Fabian Mierisch (), Guido Schwerdt and Simon Wiederhold ()
Additional contact information
Philipp Lergetporer: Technical University of Munich
Fabian Mierisch: Catholic University of Eichstaett-Ingolstadt
Guido Schwerdt: University of Konstanz

No 2024-021, Working Papers from Human Capital and Economic Opportunity Working Group

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 over-estimators. 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: policy support; discrimination; survey experiments (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C90 D83 I24 J13 J18 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024-11
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-exp
Note: ECI
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http://humcap.uchicago.edu/RePEc/hka/wpaper/Hermes ... uce-polarization.pdf First version, October 5, 2024 (application/pdf)

Related works:
Journal Article: Information about inequality in early child care reduces polarization in policy preferences (2024)
Working Paper: Information about Inequality in Early Child Care Reduces Polarization in Policy Preferences (2024)
Working Paper: Information about Inequality in Early Child Care Reduces Polarization in Policy Preferences (2024)
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