NE&EP webinar with Sandro Ambuehl (November 11th) on Interventionist Preferences and the Welfare State
may...@gmail.com
Dear all,
Our next Normative Economics and Economic Policy webinar will take place on Monday November 11th, at 5pm Paris time (11am EST: NOTE the time in the US!).
Our speaker is Sandro Ambuehl(University of Zurich), who will present:
"Interventionist Preferences and the Welfare State: The Case of In-Kind Nutrition Assistance” (joint with B. Douglas Bernheim, Tony Q. Fan, Zach Freitas-Groff; abstract below)
Link to the webinar: https://uio.zoom.us/j/64877817559
Sandro will be available for a few meetings before and after the webinar. If you are interested, sign up here:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1VIgNedzDyvUDq6ybl8TjxtEp2XwA745P_J7h3g7KrSk/edit?usp=sharing
We look forward to seeing you all on Monday next week!
All the best,
Maya and Paolo
Abstract: Poverty assistance is often administered in kind even though cash transfers might raise recipients’ welfare more effectively. We study the interventionist preferences that may restrict transfers to in-kind forms. In our lab-in-the-field experiment, U.S. citizens decide whether and how to constrain bundles of in-kind or cash-equivalent deliveries to U.S. SNAP (“food stamps”) participants. Citizens intervene strongly and often, suggesting that in-kind restrictions are an intrinsically desired feature of the system rather than a cost incurred to meet some extraneous goal. Yet, interventions do not target or promote the good of the recipients. They are substantially motivated by the selfish utility individuals derive from the act of intervening. They do not seek to ensure sufficient consumption of items beneficial to recipients but to limit consumption of items interveners find offensive. And because they depend on citizens’ systematically distorted beliefs about recipients, interventions are far more restrictive than citizens believe. In-experiment behavior correlates strongly with views about government policy.