Abstract
Three mechanisms by which anti-migrant attitudes affect redistribution support are known in the current literature: fiscal burden, welfare chauvinism, and labor market competition. Leveraging the unique context of Shanghai—where internal migrants are often unwelcomed by the locals and where the hukou system is particularly exclusionary in China—we explore how well these existing theories explain the relationship between anti-migrant attitudes and redistribution support among local Shanghainese. We designed a survey experiment that randomly exposed Shanghainese respondents to a prime about (1) fiscal pressure from rural migrants,(2) cultural differences between Shanghainese and rural migrants, or (3) labor market competition threat from rural migrants. Another randomized subset of respondents received a frame about the decreasingly exclusionary nature of Shanghai’s hukou system. Respondents across all treatment groups reported statistically insignificant differences in their redistribution support, compared to the baseline attitudes in the pure control group.