Race and Redistribution

We elicit respondents' perceptions about the economic circumstances of their racial group and the other racial group, as well as about a range of government policies. In a randomized way, we provide respondents (the teenagers and the first wave of adults) with information about the historical evolution of earnings for black and white men and women, or about the social mobility, i.e., the likelihood that black and white children born in poor families make it to each quintile of the income distribution. In the second wave of adults collected during the COVID19 pandemic, we explain in a randomized way why poor people and black people are more likely to be economically affected by this crisis. The control groups sees no information.

The intervention will consist in two distinct information treatments. Participants will be randomized in three groups. One group, the control group, will not receive any treatments while the other two groups will receive one of the two treatments each.
The two treatments focus on two different topics. The first is on the difference between the intergenerational mobility for Whites and Blacks in the US. The second one is on how the earnings evolved differently in the US from 1970 to today for Whites and Blacks differentiating between men and women as well.
More precisely, the first treatment consists in a short video (less than 2 minutes). To show the intergenerational mobility in a simple and understandable way, in the animation we show 100 kids starting from the bottom of a ladder (which represents the bottom quintile of the parents income distribution) who move to the five different steps of a second ladder (where every step represents a quintile of the income distribution of the children when they grow up). We will show this animation twice, one with 100 black kids and one with 100 white kids. At the end of the video, we put the two final ladders one next to the other. In this way we allow the participants to easily visualize and compare the different rate of intergenerational mobility between Whites and Blacks.
The second treatment also consists in a short video (around 1 minute). In this animation, to show how earnings evolved over time, we are using an animated line graph. In a first vertical line, representing the earnings in 1970, four points will appear indicating the average earnings for white men, white women, black men and black women back in 1970. Same thing will happen on a second vertical line representing the average earnings of today (2017). At this point, straight lines will connect the two points. In this way, participants will easily visualize how much the evolution of earnings differed across the four different groups.

During the second wave of the survey, we will have again two different treatments. The first one will focus on the increase in inequality cause by the COVID19 pandemic between poor and rich people while the second will be on the increase in inequality between black and white people. Both treatments will consist in a short video (less than 1 minute) with a similar wording to help us disentangle the two different effects. In the video we will start by telling that the unemployment rate increased a lot because of the COVID19 pandemic and that those who are more likely to lose their job are those that can't work from home. In the first treatment we highlight that these jobs are more common among poor people so that in the end poor people will suffer the most from the crisis. In the second treatment we instead highlight that these same jobs are more common among black people compared to white people so that in the end black people will suffer the most from the crisis.

2019-05-01

2020-09-30

We are interested in i) perceptions about the economic circumstances of one's own racial group and the other racial group, ii) attitudes and views about the economic circumstances and opportunities or discrimination for different racial groups, iii) support for various government policies related to redistribution or race.

We will construct summary indices (sum of z scores) to summarize i) misperceptions ii) attitudes towards racial discrimination and opportunities, iii) support for government policies.

We will randomize the information provided respondents. One group sees the historical evolution of earnings for white and black men and women; the other group sees probabilities of black and white children born in poor families to make it to each quintile of the income distribution; the control groups sees no information. In the second wave, one group sees the negative effect of the crisis on poor people; the other group sees the negative effect of the crisis on black people. We also randomize the order in which perceptions are elicited about black and white people (some see questions about black people first, others about white people first). We also randomize the amount of monetary incentives provided to respondents for correct answers.

The experiment will consist in an online survey that will be sent to a representative sample of the US population along the age, income and gender dimensions. On the race dimension, the sample will consist of 50% white respondents and 50% black respondents. For the survey on teenagers, the sample will be representative of the US population along the income of parents and we will collect the same share along gender and age dimension. On the race dimension, here as well the sample will consist of 50% white respondents and 50% black respondents.
Participants will be asked to answer to different kind of questions. Initially, they will be asked questions on their background. In this way we will be able to collect the demographic characteristics of the participants and information on their socio-economic background. Then, they will be asked to answer many different questions that we regrouped in four blocks. The perception block, with questions on socio-economic characteristics of the US; the attitude block, where we ask the respondents view on race related topics such as discrimination; the race policy block, containing questions on whether respondents are in favor or against certain policies in favor of Blacks; and the redistribution block, where we try to understand which are the respondents preferences in terms of taxation and government expenditure. For the second wave of adults, we also ask some questions relative to the current COVID19 pandemic. All the questions can be found in the attached document.
The experiment is designed to have different layers of randomization. A first randomization will consist in the treatment assignment that will be showed after the background block, as discussed in more details in the "Intervention" section. Half of the participants will be randomly incentivized with an additional monetary compensation if they answer correctly to the questions in the perception block, those questions which have a correct answer. We will also randomize the order in which the questions block will appear. Finally, since we ask many times the same question both about Whites and Blacks, we will also randomize the order of these question. It will be done in such a way that half of participants will have to first answer to the question on Whites and then on Blacks, the other half the other way around.

Randomization done by a computer

Individual

No

5,000 adult individuals in first wave
2,000 adult individuals in second wave
2,000 teenager (13-17 yo) individuals

5,000 adult individuals in first wave 2,000 adult individuals in second wave 2,000 teenager (13-17 yo) individuals

First Adult Wave:
208 individuals with Treatment 1, monetary incentives, order 1, questions on Blacks first
208 individuals with Treatment 1, monetary incentives, order 1, questions on Whites first
208 individuals with Treatment 1, monetary incentives, order 2, questions on Blacks first
208 individuals with Treatment 1, monetary incentives, order 2, questions on Whites first
208 individuals with Treatment 1 and no monetary incentives, order 1, questions on Blacks first
208 individuals with Treatment 1 and no monetary incentives, order 1, questions on Whites first
208 individuals with Treatment 1 and no monetary incentives, order 2, questions on Blacks first
208 individuals with Treatment 1 and no monetary incentives, order 2, questions on Whites first
208 individuals with Treatment 2 and monetary incentives, order 1, questions on Blacks first
208 individuals with Treatment 2 and monetary incentives, order 1, questions on Whites first
208 individuals with Treatment 2 and monetary incentives, order 2, questions on Blacks first
208 individuals with Treatment 2 and monetary incentives, order 2, questions on Whites first
208 individuals with Treatment 2 and no monetary incentives, order 1, questions on Blacks first
208 individuals with Treatment 2 and no monetary incentives, order 1, questions on Whites first
208 individuals with Treatment 2 and no monetary incentives, order 2, questions on Blacks first
208 individuals with Treatment 2 and no monetary incentives, order 2, questions on Whites first
209 control individuals with monetary incentives, order 1, questions on Blacks first
209 control individuals with monetary incentives, order 1, questions on Whites first
209 control individuals with monetary incentives, order 2, questions on Blacks first
209 control individuals with monetary incentives, order 2, questions on Whites first
209 control individuals with no monetary incentives, order 1, questions on Blacks first
209 control individuals with no monetary incentives, order 1, questions on Whites first
209 control individuals with no monetary incentives, order 2, questions on Blacks first
209 control individuals with no monetary incentives, order 2, questions on Whites first

Second Adult Wave:
83 individuals with Treatment 1, monetary incentives, order 1, questions on Blacks first
83 individuals with Treatment 1, monetary incentives, order 1, questions on Whites first
83 individuals with Treatment 1, monetary incentives, order 2, questions on Blacks first
83 individuals with Treatment 1, monetary incentives, order 2, questions on Whites first
83 individuals with Treatment 1 and no monetary incentives, order 1, questions on Blacks first
83 individuals with Treatment 1 and no monetary incentives, order 1, questions on Whites first
83 individuals with Treatment 1 and no monetary incentives, order 2, questions on Blacks first
83 individuals with Treatment 1 and no monetary incentives, order 2, questions on Whites first
83 individuals with Treatment 2 and monetary incentives, order 1, questions on Blacks first
83 individuals with Treatment 2 and monetary incentives, order 1, questions on Whites first
83 individuals with Treatment 2 and monetary incentives, order 2, questions on Blacks first
83 individuals with Treatment 2 and monetary incentives, order 2, questions on Whites first
83 individuals with Treatment 2 and no monetary incentives, order 1, questions on Blacks first
83 individuals with Treatment 2 and no monetary incentives, order 1, questions on Whites first
83 individuals with Treatment 2 and no monetary incentives, order 2, questions on Blacks first
83 individuals with Treatment 2 and no monetary incentives, order 2, questions on Whites first
84 control individuals with monetary incentives, order 1, questions on Blacks first
84 control individuals with monetary incentives, order 1, questions on Whites first
84 control individuals with monetary incentives, order 2, questions on Blacks first
84 control individuals with monetary incentives, order 2, questions on Whites first
84 control individuals with no monetary incentives, order 1, questions on Blacks first
84 control individuals with no monetary incentives, order 1, questions on Whites first
84 control individuals with no monetary incentives, order 2, questions on Blacks first
84 control individuals with no monetary incentives, order 2, questions on Whites first

Teenagers:
167 individuals with Treatment 1, order 1, questions on Blacks first
167 individuals with Treatment 1, order 1, questions on Whites first
167 individuals with Treatment 1, order 2, questions on Blacks first
167 individuals with Treatment 1, order 2, questions on Whites first
167 individuals with Treatment 2, order 1, questions on Blacks first
167 individuals with Treatment 2, order 1, questions on Whites first
167 individuals with Treatment 2, order 2, questions on Blacks first
167 individuals with Treatment 2, order 2, questions on Whites first
166 control individuals, order 1, questions on Blacks first
166 control individuals, order 1, questions on Whites first
166 control individuals, order 2, questions on Blacks first
166 control individuals, order 2, questions on Whites first