Welfare Stigma Re-Examined

Blumkin, Tomer; Margalioth, Yoram; Sadka, Efraim

doi:10.1111/jpet.12109

Cited by 18 publications

(18 citation statements)

References 12 publications

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“…Saez (2002) discusses the possibility of assigning a relatively low marginal social weight to unemployed unskilled workers and shows that this would reinforce the case for an Earned Income Tax Credit. Finally, Blumkin et al (2015) demonstrate that statistical stigma can be an effective welfare ordeal mechanism to sort out those claimants considered undeserving.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 94%

Deserving poor and the desirability of a minimum wage

Blumkin

Danziger

2018

IZA J Labor Econ

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 94%

Deserving poor and the desirability of a minimum wage

Blumkin

Danziger

2018

IZA J Labor Econ

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“…It is a pertinent question when studying malleable stigmatized characteristics (e.g., welfare receipt) but is largely irrelevant to fixed stigmatized characteristics (e.g., race). One proposed function of welfare stigma is to encourage people to move off payments (Blumkin, Margalioth, & Sadka, ). Such a function would be facilitated if unemployment benefit recipients anticipated that the stigma they currently face would disappear on their return to work and scar how they are evaluated into the future.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The persistence of welfare stigma: Does the passing of time and subsequent employment moderate the negative perceptions associated with unemployment benefit receipt?

Schofield

Haslam

Butterworth

2019

J Applied Social Pyschol

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People receiving welfare payments are stigmatized. However, previous studies of welfare recipient stereotypes have not examined whether the stigma endures after payments are no longer received and have rarely considered the stigma associated with specific categories of welfare payments. We examined whether welfare stigma endures in three experiments (total N = 873) focused on one category of welfare recipient, people receiving government income support due to their unemployment. To test if this stigmatized identity marked or scarred how people are perceived, we compared evaluations of currently unemployed benefit recipients to currently employed people who either previously received this benefit or who had no stated history of benefit receipt. Across the three experiments, we found that current recipients of unemployment benefits were evaluated as much less conscientious, less human, and poorer workers, but as somewhat more extraverted than currently employed individuals irrespective of their welfare history. Moreover, we found that currently employed individuals were evaluated similarly, regardless of whether they had a prior history of benefit receipt, and the recency of this prior benefit experience. This pattern of results suggests that receiving unemployment benefits does not scar how a person is perceived by others, but only temporarily marks how they are perceived. These findings suggest that welfare stigma may create an evaluative barrier to returning to work, but that if this barrier can be overcome there are no negative evaluations of former recipients’ character. Overall, community members seem accepting of prior benefit receipt once a person returns to work.

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“…Furthermore, as some individuals may falsely claim a transfer they are not eligible for, stigmatization may deter some of these unjustified claims (cf. Blumkin et al, 2015). These aspects as well as the interaction between social image concerns and other barriers to program participation are topics needing further research.…”

Section: Concluding Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Social image concerns and welfare take-up

Friedrichsen

König

Schmacker

2018

Journal of Public Economics

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Using a laboratory experiment, we present first evidence that social image concerns causally reduce the take-up of an individually beneficial transfer. Our design manipulates the informativeness of the take-up decision by varying whether transfer eligibility is based on ability or luck, and how the transfer is financed. We find that subjects avoid the inference both of being low-skilled (ability stigma) and of being willing to live off others (free-rider stigma). Using a placebo treatment, we exclude other explanations for the observed stigma effects. Although stigma reduces take-up, elicitation of political preferences reveals that only a minority of "taxpayers" vote for the public transfer.

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Welfare Stigma Re-Examined

Abstract: We dissect welfare stigma into two types: traditional and statistical, and show that the latter can be employed as a desirable form of a welfare ordeal, as its costs are positively correlated with ability.

Cited by 18 publications

References 12 publications

Deserving poor and the desirability of a minimum wage

Deserving poor and the desirability of a minimum wage

The persistence of welfare stigma: Does the passing of time and subsequent employment moderate the negative perceptions associated with unemployment benefit receipt?

Social image concerns and welfare take-up

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