In Simple Words
When a person decides whether to take a job training course, their biggest concern is not being seen walking into the training center; it is the long-term embarrassment of working in the specific job at the end of the course. It is like avoiding a free swimming lesson not because the lesson is free, but because you do not want to be seen working as a lifeguard afterwards.
Cairo job seekers grouped by predicted response
- Highest predicted response
- Application effect: +5.4 percentage points (uncertain)
- Lowest predicted response
- Application effect: −15.5 percentage points
The card includes the source’s social-message heterogeneity finding: −15.5 percentage points in the lowest predicted-response group versus a positive but uncertain +5.4-point estimate in the highest. The direct difference is significant (p = 0.009). This selected comparison does not establish that job-outcome stigma has a larger effect than welfare stigma.
See source →Research question
Public policy research traditionally assumes low participation in social programs stems from the social shame of receiving public assistance, overlooking the negative social perceptions attached to the target job positions themselves.
Participants
N = 1,460 to 1,470 unemployed/underemployed youth aged 18–35 in Cairo, Egypt for Experiment 1; N = 834 for the welfare stigma treatment.
Study Design
Randomized field experiment comparing recruitment pitches addressing job outcome stigmas against a treatment explicitly framing subsidies as assistance for those in financial hardship.
Results
Interventions addressing job outcome stigmas created large heterogeneous responses ranging from a -15.5 percentage point reduction in applications in low-response groups to positive gains in high-response groups, whereas financial hardship framing produced no statistically significant change in application rates (-2.3 percentage points, p = 0.44) or applicant composition.
Takeaway
Reframe active labor market program outreach to focus on occupational growth and employer prestige rather than attempting to destigmatize the financial subsidies of the training program.
Source and citation
See source →Read alongside the research
Plain-English glossary
Original explanations, informed by the references below. Examples are illustrations, not data from the studies above. The research text stays unchanged.
- Percentage points
The difference between two percentages.
ExampleA rise from 40% to 50% is 10 percentage points. Relative to the starting value, that is a 25% increase.
Office for National Statistics · Percentages ↗Read more about percentage points →- Statistically significant
A label used when a result passes a chosen statistical threshold, often p < 0.05. It does not show how large or useful an effect is. A result that is not statistically significant does not prove there is no effect.
ExampleA study reports p = 0.03 against a 0.05 threshold. It passes that test, but the effect could still be too small to matter.
American Statistical Association · Statement on p-values ↗Read more about statistically significant →