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How to measure public demand for policies when there is no appropriate survey data?

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  • Oehl, Bianca
  • Schaffer, Lena Maria
  • Bernauer, Thomas

Abstract

Explanatory models accounting for variation in policy choices by democratic governments usually include a demand (by the public) and a supply (by the government) component, whereas the latter component is usually better developed from a measurement viewpoint. The main reason is that public opinion surveys, the standard approach to measuring public demand, are expensive, difficult to implement simultaneously for different countries for purposes of crossnational comparison and impossible to implement ex post for purposes of longitudinal analysis if survey data for past time periods are lacking. We therefore propose a new approach to measuring public demand, focussing on political claims made by nongovernmental actors and expressed in the news. To demonstrate the feasibility and usefulness of our measure of published opinion, we focus on climate policy in the time period between 1995 and 2010. When comparing the new measure of published opinion with the best available public opinion survey and internet search data, it turns out that our data can serve as a meaningful proxy for public demand.

Suggested Citation

  • Oehl, Bianca & Schaffer, Lena Maria & Bernauer, Thomas, 2017. "How to measure public demand for policies when there is no appropriate survey data?," Journal of Public Policy, Cambridge University Press, vol. 37(2), pages 173-204, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:cup:jnlpup:v:37:y:2017:i:02:p:173-204_00
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    Citations

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    Cited by:

    1. Liam F. Beiser-McGrath & Robert A. Huber, 2018. "Assessing the relative importance of psychological and demographic factors for predicting climate and environmental attitudes," Climatic Change, Springer, vol. 149(3), pages 335-347, August.
    2. Yueping Zheng & Liang Ma, 2022. "How Citizen Demand Affects the Process of M-Government Adoption: An Empirical Study in China," Electronic Commerce Research, Springer, vol. 22(4), pages 1407-1433, December.
    3. Liam F Beiser-McGrath & Thomas Bernauer, 2021. "Current surveys may underestimate climate change skepticism evidence from list experiments in Germany and the USA," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 16(7), pages 1-13, July.
    4. Diaz-Balteiro, L. & Alfranca, O. & Voces, R. & Soliño, M., 2023. "Using google search patterns to explain the demand for wild edible mushrooms," Forest Policy and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 152(C).
    5. Kai Gehring & Matteo Grigoletto, 2023. "Analyzing Climate Change Policy Narratives with the Character-Role Narrative Framework," CESifo Working Paper Series 10429, CESifo.
    6. Shapiro, Matthew A., 2020. "Next-generation battery research and development: Non-politicized science at the Joint Center for Energy Storage Research," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 145(C).

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