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How Do Beliefs About the Gender Wage Gap Affect the Demand for Public Policy?

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  • Sonja Settele

    (Department of Economics, University of Copenhagen)

Abstract

I conduct a survey experiment to study the relationship between peo-ple’s beliefs about the size of the gender wage gap and their demand for policies aimed at mitigating it. Beliefs causally affect support for equal pay legislation and affirmative action programs, but cannot account for the polarization in policy views by partisanship and gender. Changes in policy demand seem to be driven by changes in beliefs about discrimina-tion in labor markets and fairness concerns, while self-interest appears less important. I provide evidence that pessimism about the effective-ness of government intervention limits the elasticity of policy demand to perceived wage differentials.

Suggested Citation

  • Sonja Settele, 2022. "How Do Beliefs About the Gender Wage Gap Affect the Demand for Public Policy?," ECONtribute Discussion Papers Series 179, University of Bonn and University of Cologne, Germany.
    • Handle: RePEc:ajk:ajkdps:179
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    Cited by:

    1. Boneva, T. & Golin, M. & Kaufmann, K. & Rauh, C., 2022. "Beliefs About Maternal Labor Supply," Janeway Institute Working Papers 2230, Faculty of Economics, University of Cambridge.
    2. Lasse J. Jessen & Sebastian Koehne & Patrick Nüß & Jens Ruhose, 2024. "Socioeconomic Inequality in Life Expectancy: Perception and Policy Demand," CESifo Working Paper Series 10940, CESifo.
    3. Backhaus, Teresa & Schäper, Clara & Schrenker, Annekatrin, 2023. "Causal misperceptions of the part-time pay gap," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 83(C).
    4. Lergetporer, Philipp & Woessmann, Ludger, 2023. "Earnings information and public preferences for university tuition: Evidence from representative experiments," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 226(C).
    5. Golin, M. & Rauh, C., 2022. "The Impact of Fear of Automation," Janeway Institute Working Papers 2229, Faculty of Economics, University of Cambridge.
    6. Aljosha Henkel & Ernst Fehr & Julien Senn & Thomas Epper, 2024. "Beliefs about inequality and the nature of support for redistribution," ECON - Working Papers 442, Department of Economics - University of Zurich.
    7. Angerer, Silvia & Glätzle-Rützler, Daniela & Lergetporer, Philipp & Rittmannsberger, Thomas, 2023. "How does the vaccine approval procedure affect COVID-19 vaccination intentions?," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 158(C).
    8. Grewenig, Elisabeth & Lergetporer, Philipp & Simon, Lisa & Werner, Katharina & Woessmann, Ludger, 2023. "Can internet surveys represent the entire population? A practitioners’ analysis," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 78(C).
    9. Lergetporer, P & Woessmann, L, 2022. "Income Contingency and the Electorates Support for Tuition," CAGE Online Working Paper Series 606, Competitive Advantage in the Global Economy (CAGE).
    10. Riccardo Bruni & Alessandro Gioffré & Maria Marino, 2022. ""In-group bias in preferences for redistribution: a survey experiment in Italy"," IREA Working Papers 202223, University of Barcelona, Research Institute of Applied Economics, revised Nov 2023.
    11. Giuliano, Paola & Spilimbergo, Antonio, 2024. "Aggregate Shocks and the Formation of Preferences and Beliefs," IZA Discussion Papers 17110, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    12. Henning Hermes & Philipp Lergetporer & Fabian Mierisch & Guido Schwerdt & Simon Wiederhold, 2024. "Does Information about Inequality and Discrimination in Early Child Care Affect Policy Preferences?," Working Papers 230, Bavarian Graduate Program in Economics (BGPE).
    13. Chantal Pezold & Simon Jäger & Patrick Nüss, 2023. "Labor Market Tightness and Union Activity," NBER Working Papers 31988, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    14. Filip Pertold & Sofiana Sinani & Michal Soltes, 2023. "Gender Gap in Reported Childcare Preferences among Parents," CERGE-EI Working Papers wp770, The Center for Economic Research and Graduate Education - Economics Institute, Prague.
    15. Hermes, Henning & Lergetporer, Philipp & Mierisch, Fabian & Schwerdt, Guido & Wiederhold, Simon, 2024. "Does Information about Inequality and Discrimination in Early Child Care Affect Policy Preferences?," IZA Discussion Papers 16759, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    16. Muhammed Bulutay, 2024. "Better than Perceived? Correcting Misperceptions about Central Bank Inflation Forecasts," Berlin School of Economics Discussion Papers 0034, Berlin School of Economics.
    17. Jana Schuetz, 2024. "Beliefs about the Gender Pension Gap," Jena Economics Research Papers 2024-004, Friedrich-Schiller-University Jena.
    18. Alessandra Casarico & Jana Schuetz & Silke Uebelmesser, 2024. "Gender Inequality over the Life Cycle, Information Provision and Policy Preferences," CESifo Working Paper Series 10916, CESifo.
    19. Engel, Julia F. & Huber, Christoph & Nüß, Patrick, 2022. "Replication Report: How Do Beliefs About the Gender Wage Gap Affect the Demand for Public Policy?," I4R Discussion Paper Series 12, The Institute for Replication (I4R).
    20. Vod Vilfort & Whitney Zhang, 2023. "Interpreting TSLS Estimators in Information Provision Experiments," Papers 2309.04793, arXiv.org, revised Jun 2024.
    21. Andrea Pogliano, 2024. "Born That Way: Beliefs about Genetics’ Importance and Redistribution Preferences," Tinbergen Institute Discussion Papers 24-017/I, Tinbergen Institute.
    22. Dylan Balla-Elliott, 2023. "Identifying Causal Effects in Information Provision Experiments," Papers 2309.11387, arXiv.org, revised Nov 2023.

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