The Price of Prejudice: Evidence from Citizens and Local Government in Greece

• In Event: Refugees and Local Politics (Pre-Recorded)

Abstract

In the wake of the European refugee crisis, political elites have increasingly sought to address issues of asylum-seeker settlement through ``fair-share'' policies based on quota systems and financial incentives. These systems imply a trade-off between hosting asylum applicants and financial gains to local governments–with those willing to host receiving EU funds and those unwilling to host paying a penalty to the EU for non-compliance. The academic literature on asylum-seeker acceptance and assimilation, however, has overwhelmingly focused on psychological and behavioral factors, such as nudges, emotions, empathy, perspective taking, and information provision as ways to build acceptance between refugees and local host communities. Using data from an original survey of over 3,000 citizens and local government officials in Greece conducted in 2020, we employ a novel preference elicitation mechanism based on paired decisions to examine how citizens and local politicians view the trade-off between financial incentives and hosting asylum seekers. We find that whereas politicians respond to asylum seeker settlement policies based on “fair share” quotas and financial incentives with lexicographic preferences, these same policies drastically polarize citizenries. We argue that efforts at asylum seeker resettlement and integration could be improved by recognizing that citizens and politicians price their prejudices very differently.

Authors

• Kristin E. Fabbe, Harvard Business School

• Konstantinos Matakos, King's College London