TY  - RPRT
        AU  - Hermes, Henning
AU  - Lergetporer, Philipp
AU  - Mierisch, Fabian
AU  - Schwerdt, Guido
AU  - Wiederhold, Simon
        TI  - Does Information about Inequality and Discrimination in Early Child Care Affect Policy Preferences?
        PY  - 2024/Jan/
        PB  - Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)
        CY  - Bonn
        T2  - IZA Discussion Paper
        IS  - 16759
        UR  - https://www.iza.org/publications/dp16759
        AB  - We investigate public preferences for equity-enhancing policies in access to early child care, using a survey experiment with a representative sample of the German population (n ≈ 4, 800). We observe strong misperceptions about migrant-native inequalities in early child care that vary by respondents' age and right-wing voting preferences. Randomly providing information about the actual extent of inequalities has a nuanced impact on the support for equity-enhancing policy reforms: it increases support for respondents who initially underestimated these inequalities, and tends to decrease support for those who initially overestimated them. This asymmetric effect leads to a more consensual policy view, substantially decreasing the polarization in policy support between under- and overestimators. Our results suggest that correcting misperceptions can align public policy preferences, potentially leading to less polarized debates about how to address inequalities and discrimination.
        KW  - discrimination
KW  - inequality
KW  - information
KW  - policy support
KW  - child care
KW  - survey experiment
        ER  -