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  4. Preliminary Program
  5. Perception of Policies and Polarization
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Perception of Policies and Polarization

Paper Session

Sunday, Jan. 9, 2022 10:00 AM - 12:00 PM (EST)

Hosted By: American Economic Association
  • Chair: Stefanie Stantcheva, Harvard University

Crises and Scapegoating

Leonardo Bursztyn
,
University of Chicago and NBER
Ingar Haaland
,
University of Bergen and CESifo
Aakaash Rao
,
Harvard University
Christopher Roth
,
University of Warwick

Abstract

We explore how crises can increase political extremism and spur anti-minority hostility. We discuss different mechanisms through which crises can increase political extremism and provide empirical evidence on a particular mechanism from the coronavirus pandemic. Our experiments reveal that people are much more likely to publicly demand a permanent ban on Mexican immigration when they can attribute their position to concerns about the spread of COVID-19. Our findings highlight how crises provide natural justifications which make extremist positions more socially acceptable.

My Taxes are Too Darn High: Why Do Households Protest Their Taxes?

Brad Nathan
,
University of Texas-Dallas
Ricardo Perez-Truglia
,
University of California-Berkeley
Alejandro Zentner
,
University of Texas-Dallas

Abstract

In all U.S. states, individuals can file a protest with the goal of legally reducing their property taxes. We study the motives for protesting taxes using administrative records and two sources of causal identification: a quasi-experiment and a large-scale natural field experiment. We show that, consistent with selfish motives, the decision to protest is highly elastic to the private benefits and private costs. We also find evidence of fairness motives: consistent with conditional cooperation, a higher perceived average tax rate decreases both perceived unfairness and the protest probability. Last, we compare protest behavior between Republican and Democratic households. In contrast to some survey data suggesting a large partisan divide in views about the government, we find only small partisan differences in our high-stakes, naturally occurring context.

Eliciting People's First-Order Concerns: Text Analysis of Open-Ended Survey Questions

Stefanie Stantcheva
,
Harvard University

Abstract

This paper illustrates the design and use of open-ended survey questions as a way of eliciting people's first-order concerns on policies. Multiple choice questions are the backbone of most surveys, but they may prime respondents to select answer options that they would not naturally have thought about, and they may omit relevant options. Open-ended questions that do not constrain respondents with specific answer choices are a valuable tool for eliciting first-order thinking. We discuss three text analysis methods to analyze open-ended questions' answers. To illustrate how to apply these methods, we provide evidence from large-scale surveys on income and estate taxation. We show the that key concerns relate mostly to distribution issues, fairness, and government, rather than to efficiency concerns. There are large partisan gaps in the first-order concerns on policies.
JEL Classifications
  • D7 - Analysis of Collective Decision-Making
  • D9 - Micro-Based Behavioral Economics