{ "title": "Getting Into People's Heads", "sourceUrl": "https://www.imf.org/en/publications/fandd/issues/2022/09/pie-getting-into-people-heads-stefanie-stantcheva", "canonical": "https://www.imf.org/en/publications/fandd/issues/2022/09/pie-getting-into-people-heads-stefanie-stantcheva", "overlayPath": "/en/publications/fandd/issues/2022/09/pie-getting-into-people-heads-stefanie-stantcheva/index.md", "summary": "Marjorie Henriquez profiles Harvard’s Stefanie Stantcheva, who uses surveys and experiments to uncover the invisible in traditional economic data", "sections": [ { "heading": "Overview", "content": "- Profile of Stefanie Stantcheva, Harvard economics professor, by Marjorie Henríquez, published in F&D Magazine, September 2022.\n- Stantcheva uses large-scale socio-economic surveys and experiments to uncover information “invisible in traditional economic data” and to understand people’s perceptions, attitudes, knowledge, and notions of fairness regarding economic policy.\n- Career and recognitions:\n - PhD from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in 2014.\n - Age noted as 36.\n - Winner of the 2020 American Economic Association’s Elaine Bennett Research Prize.\n - First woman to join the editorial board of the Quarterly Journal of Economics." }, { "heading": "Research methods and the Social Economics Lab", "content": "- Established the Social Economics Lab at Harvard in 2018.\n- Lab composition:\n - Team of about 20 research fellows, including graduate and undergraduate students.\n- Methods:\n - Large-scale surveys and experiments, often cross-country.\n - Emphasis on measuring perceptions, narratives, and fairness judgments that standard economic data do not capture." }, { "heading": "Key empirical findings", "content": "- General insights:\n - Perceptions—not objective inequality levels alone—shape support for redistribution.\n - Narratives and stories can be more effective than raw facts at changing views.\n- Immigration and redistribution study (2018, with Alberto Alesina and Armando Miano):\n - Sample: 22,000 people surveyed in six countries—France, Germany, Italy, Sweden, the UK, and the US.\n - Findings:\n - Respondents greatly overestimated the number of immigrants in all countries.\n - Respondents perceived immigrants as more unemployed, less educated, and economically weaker than reality.\n - These misperceptions led respondents to believe immigrants paid less in taxes and received a much larger share of government transfers than actually the case.\n - Misperceptions were largest among people with lower education, in lower-paid jobs, and in sectors that employ many immigrants; and across all countries, among people on the right of the political spectrum.\n - Prompting respondents to think about immigration before asking about redistribution reduced support for redistribution.\n - The two biggest predictors of reduced support for redistribution were:\n - The perception that immigrants “free-ride” and do not put in hard work.\n - The perception that immigrants are economically weak.\n - Providing factual information about immigrant numbers or origins did not shift redistribution views; telling a story about a hard-working immigrant did counter the free-rider narrative.\n- Taxation and human capital:\n - 2017 study “Optimal Taxation and Human Capital Policies over the Life Cycle” analyzed interactions between tax and human capital policies over a person’s life span.\n - Conclusion: Income-contingent loans can allow people to finance higher education over a lifetime without exacerbating inequality, provided the system shares upside as well as protects during downturns.\n - Noted policy adoption: “nine or so countries, including Australia, New Zealand, and the UK, have adopted some form of income-contingent loans,” but these often protect borrowers in bad times without collecting more in good times; for optimal common-pool funding the system “must work both ways.”\n- Climate policy attitudes:\n - Ongoing project surveying attitudes concerning climate change across 20 countries.\n - Early survey results: people’s views are shaped by who they think will bear the burden of paying for climate policy; perceptions that lower- or middle-income classes bear disproportionate burdens reduce acceptability." }, { "heading": "Policy implications and recommendations", "content": "- When crafting social-objective policies (for example, reducing inequality), economists need data on what people know, believe, and consider fair.\n- Policy design should account for perceptions and narratives:\n - Facts alone may be insufficient to change public support; narratives that counter perceived free-rider stories can be effective.\n- Education and communication strategies should focus on:\n - Who benefits and who bears costs, since notions of fairness—who the winners and losers are—drive much of public support.\n- Example applied recommendation from Stantcheva and Dani Rodrik in the post-COVID commission work:\n - Pay attention to how trade policies affect local labor markets.\n - After a deliberative domestic process, consider restricting imports produced under conditions that violate labor rights abroad and threaten jobs or working conditions at home." }, { "heading": "Ongoing and recent projects", "content": "- Studying how the general property tax in the US shaped economic development in the 19th century.\n- Studying the impact of France’s wealth tax on tax evasion and wealth.\n- Extending research on perceptions of climate policy across 20 countries.\n- Published a note for the French Council of Economic Analysis on French people’s attitudes about climate policies." }, { "heading": "Teaching, mentorship, and legacy", "content": "- Prioritizes teaching and coaching graduate and undergraduate students; colleagues note care and engagement with students.\n- After the May 2020 death of Alberto Alesina, Stantcheva “in a very natural way has stepped up to the role that Alberto used to have” and has worked to keep his legacy alive.\n- Actively presenting findings to policymakers and advising advisory bodies (member of the French Council of Economic Analysis); her research is discussed with great interest in the context of the “gilets jaunes crisis.”\n\nSource: “Getting Into People's Heads,” Marjorie Henríquez, F&D Magazine, September 2022.\n\n---\n\n Content in this bundle\n\n- Getting into People's Heads\n - Getting into People's Heads (Markdown version){rel=\"alternate\" type=\"text/markdown\"}\n - Getting into People's Heads (PDF){rel=\"external\" type=\"application/pdf\"}\n\n---\n\nSource: https://www.imf.org/en/publications/fandd/issues/2022/09/pie-getting-into-people-heads-stefanie-stantcheva" } ], "bullets": [ "[Markdown version](/en/publications/fandd/issues/2022/09/pie-getting-into-people-heads-stefanie-stantcheva/index.md)", "[Structured JSON version](/en/publications/fandd/issues/2022/09/pie-getting-into-people-heads-stefanie-stantcheva/index.json)", "[Bundle manifest](/en/publications/fandd/issues/2022/09/pie-getting-into-people-heads-stefanie-stantcheva/bundle-manifest.json)", "Authors: Marjorie Henriquez", "Published: September 1, 2022", "Profile of Stefanie Stantcheva, Harvard economics professor, by Marjorie Henríquez, published in F&D Magazine, September 2022.", "Stantcheva uses large-scale socio-economic surveys and experiments to uncover information “invisible in traditional economic data” and to understand people’s perceptions, attitudes, knowledge, and notions of fairness regarding economic policy.", "Career and recognitions:", "Established the Social Economics Lab at Harvard in 2018.", "Lab composition:", "Methods:", "General insights:", "Immigration and redistribution study (2018, with Alberto Alesina and Armando Miano):", "Taxation and human capital:", "Climate policy attitudes:", "When crafting social-objective policies (for example, reducing inequality), economists need data on what people know, believe, and consider fair.", "Policy design should account for perceptions and narratives:", "Education and communication strategies should focus on:", "Example applied recommendation from Stantcheva and Dani Rodrik in the post-COVID commission work:", "Studying how the general property tax in the US shaped economic development in the 19th century.", "Studying the impact of France’s wealth tax on tax evasion and wealth.", "Extending research on perceptions of climate policy across 20 countries.", "Published a note for the French Council of Economic Analysis on French people’s attitudes about climate policies.", "Prioritizes teaching and coaching graduate and undergraduate students; colleagues note care and engagement with students.", "After the May 2020 death of Alberto Alesina, Stantcheva “in a very natural way has stepped up to the role that Alberto used to have” and has worked to keep his legacy alive.", "Actively presenting findings to policymakers and advising advisory bodies (member of the French Council of Economic Analysis); her research is discussed with great interest in the context of the “gilets jaunes crisis.”", "**Getting into People's Heads**" ], "related": [ { "title": "Getting into People's Heads", "role": "document", "sourceUrl": "https://www.imf.org/-/media/files/publications/fandd/article/2022/september/people-economics-stantcheva.pdf", "summary": { "path": "/-/media/files/publications/fandd/article/2022/september/people-economics-stantcheva.pdf.md", "mime": "text/markdown" }, "binary": { "path": "/-/media/files/publications/fandd/article/2022/september/people-economics-stantcheva.pdf", "mime": "application/pdf" } } ], "alternates": { "markdown": "/en/publications/fandd/issues/2022/09/pie-getting-into-people-heads-stefanie-stantcheva/index.md", "json": "/en/publications/fandd/issues/2022/09/pie-getting-into-people-heads-stefanie-stantcheva/index.json", "bundleManifest": "/en/publications/fandd/issues/2022/09/pie-getting-into-people-heads-stefanie-stantcheva/bundle-manifest.json" }, "generatedAtUtc": "2026-09-15T18:09:21.677Z" }