Research

Working Papers:

Zero-Sum Thinking and the Roots of U.S. Political Divides

Authors: Sahil Chinoy, Nathan Nunn, Sandra Sequeira, and Stefanie Stantcheva

We examine how the extent to which one views the world in zero-sum terms — i.e., that benefits to one person or group come at the expense of others — influence policy views and can help explain current political divides in the United States.

Fighting Climate Change: International Attitudes Toward Climate Policies

Authors: Antoine Dechezleprêtre, Adrien Fabre, Tobias Kruse, Bluebery Planterose, Ana Sanchez Chico, and Stefanie Stantcheva

Using new surveys on more than 40,000 respondents in twenty countries that account for 72% of global CO2 emissions, we study the understanding of and attitudes toward climate change and climate policies.

Perceptions of Racial Gaps, their Causes, and Ways to Reduce Them

Authors: Alberto Alesina, Matteo Ferroni, and Stefanie Stantcheva

We investigate how respondents perceive racial inequities between Black and white Americans, what they believe causes them, and what interventions, if any, they think should be implemented to reduce them.

Understanding Economics

Author: Stefanie Stantcheva

Using large-scale online surveys and experiments on representative U.S. samples, we study how well people understand, reason, and learn about four economic policies: i) Personal income taxation, ii) Estate taxation, iii) Health insurance, and iv) Trade. 

Understanding of Trade

Author: Stefanie Stantcheva

I study how people understand and reason about trade, and what factors shape their views on trade policy. 

Publications:

The Health of Democracies during the Pandemic

Authors: Marcella Alsan, Luca Braghieri, Sarah Eichmeyer, Joyce Kim, Stefanie Stantcheva, and David Yang
There is a growing global concern about the health of democracies (Rubin, 2022). Although support for civil liberties had weakened prior to COVID-19 – the pandemic and the public health responses it elicited could possibly accelerate a trend towards autocracy.  Anticipating this threat, during the first few months of the pandemic our team conducted in-depth survey experiments across several Western democratic countries…

Civil Liberties in Times of Crisis

Authors: Marcella Alsan, Luca Braghieri, Sarah Eichmeyer, Joyce Kim, Stefanie Stantcheva, and David Yang

We study to what extent individual preferences for protecting rights and civil liberties are elastic to health insecurity.

Social Position and Fairness Views

Authors: Kristoffer Hvidberg, Claus Kreiner, and Stefanie Stantcheva

We link survey data on Danish people’s perceived income positions and views on inequality within various reference groups to administrative records on their reference groups, income histories, and life events.

How to Run Surveys: A guide to creating your own identifying variation and revealing the invisible

Author: Stefanie Stantcheva

This paper offers guidance to researchers on how to create surveys. It covers the complete survey process, the design of the questions and experiments to the recruitment of respondents, the collection of data to the analysis of
survey responses, and more.

Disparities in Coronavirus 2019 Reported Incidence, Knowledge, and Behavior Among US Adults

Authors: Marcella Alsan, David Cutler, Stefanie Stantcheva, and David Yang

In this survey study of US adults, there were gaps in reported incidence of COVID-19 and knowledge regarding its spread and symptoms and social distancing behavior…

Diversity, Immigration, and Redistribution

Authors: Alberto Alesina, Armando Miano, and Stefanie Stantcheva

This paper provides a simple conceptual framework that captures how different perceptions, attitudes, and biases about immigrants or minorities can shape preferences for redistribution and reviews the empirical evidence on the effects of increasing racial diversity and immigration on support for redistribution.

Eliciting People's First-Order Concerns

Authors: Beatrice Ferrario and Stefanie Stantcheva

This paper illustrates the design and use of open-ended survey questions as a way of eliciting people’s first-order concerns on policies.

How Elastic are Preferences for Redistribution?

Authors: Ilyana Kuziemko, Michael Norton, Emmanuel Saez and Stefanie Stantcheva

We develop survey experiments to analyze how information about inequality and taxes affects preferences for redistribution. 4,000 respondents were randomized into treatments providing information on U.S. income inequality, the link between top income tax rates and economic growth, and the estate tax….

Immigration and Redistribution​

Authors: Alberto Alesina, Armando Miano, and Stefanie Stantcheva

We design and conduct large-scale surveys and experiments in six countries to investigate how natives perceive immigrants and how these perceptions influence their preferences for redistribution…

Intergenerational Mobility and Support for Redistribution​

Authors: Alberto Alesina, Edoardo Teso and Stefanie Stantcheva

Using new cross-country survey and experimental data, we investigate how beliefs about intergenerational mobility affect preferences for redistribution in France, Italy, Sweden, the U.K., and the U.S..

The Polarization of Reality

Authors: Alberto Alesina, Armando Miano, and Stefanie Stantcheva

Americans are polarized not only in their views on policy issues and attitudes towards government and society, but also in their perceptions of the same, factual reality…

Understanding Tax Policy: How do People Reason?

Author: Stefanie Stantcheva

I study how people understand, reason, and learn about two major tax policies: income taxation and estate taxation. Using large-scale Social Economics surveys issued to representative U.S. samples and associated experiments, I seek to elicit respondents’ factual knowledge about tax policy…