Economic risk perceptions and willingness to learn about globalization: A field experiment with migrants and other underprivileged groups in Vietnam

Abstract

Existing research maintains that socioeconomically disadvantaged individuals are reluctant to seek information that might help mitigate risk. Authors Niccolò Bonifai, Edmund J. Malesky, and Nita Rudra challenge this convention by proposing that perceptions of risks associated with global economic shocks can incentivize some disadvantaged individuals to acquire knowledge about their distributional effects. Internal migrants, in particular, have strong incentives to respond to such risks by seeking information. The authors test their hypotheses using a randomized experiment inVietnam exposing half of the participants to risks associated with a new trade agreement with the European Union. They track willingness to learn by observing whether respondents accessed an online video describing the economic impacts of the agreement. The authors find that treated migrants were 187% more likely to seek knowledge than the control group, but find null effects for residents from sending and receiving locations. Their findings help uncover the key role migrants can play in supporting globalization and shared prosperity.