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Attitudes towards euro area reforms: Evidence from a randomized survey experiment

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  • Dolls, Mathias
  • Wehrhöfer, Nils

Abstract

This paper provides insights into the determinants of euro area reform preferences by means of a randomized survey experiment in Germany. Respondents are confronted with a pro and a contra argument to reform proposals on a European Unemployment Benefit Scheme and a Sovereign Insolvency Procedure, respectively, with the contra argument being varied across respondents. Our results for the control group suggest that there is a low willingness to accept fiscal risk-sharing through common unemployment insurance, while a sovereign insolvency procedure aimed at strengthening market discipline is supported by a majority of the survey participants. Our randomized treatments highlighting specific potential adverse effects of the reforms lead to significant downward shifts in approval rates. Altruism, EU support, nationalism, political preferences and income are important predictors of support for the reform proposals. We also show that there is a striking contrast between the low level of support for transfers to other euro area member states and a broad acceptance of inner German transfers.

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  • Dolls, Mathias & Wehrhöfer, Nils, 2021. "Attitudes towards euro area reforms: Evidence from a randomized survey experiment," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 67(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:poleco:v:67:y:2021:i:c:s0176268020301191
    DOI: 10.1016/j.ejpoleco.2020.101971
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    2. Blesse, Sebastian & Buhlmann, Florian & Doerrenberg, Philipp, 2019. "Do people really want a simple tax system? Evidence on preferences towards income tax simplification," ZEW Discussion Papers 19-058, ZEW - Leibniz Centre for European Economic Research.
    3. Lindner, Vincent & Eckert, Sandra & Nölke, Andreas, 2022. "Political science research on the reasons for the (non) adoption and (non) implementation of EMU reform proposals: The state of the art," SAFE Working Paper Series 339, Leibniz Institute for Financial Research SAFE.
    4. Johannes Blum & Anna Dudel & Björn Kauder & Manuela Krause & Niklas Potrafke, 2019. "Reform proposals for the Eurozone – Is Joint European Unemployment Insurance the Answer?," ifo Schnelldienst, ifo Institute - Leibniz Institute for Economic Research at the University of Munich, vol. 72(02), pages 55-61, January.
    5. Brian Burgoon & Theresa Kuhn & Francesco Nicoli & Frank Vandenbroucke, 2022. "Unemployment risk-sharing in the EU: How policy design influences citizen support for European unemployment policy," European Union Politics, , vol. 23(2), pages 282-308, June.
    6. Grewenig, Elisabeth & Lergetporer, Philipp & Simon, Lisa & Werner, Katharina & Woessmann, Ludger, 2023. "Can internet surveys represent the entire population? A practitioners’ analysis," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 78(C).

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Public attitudes; Euro area reforms; European unemployment insurance; Sovereign insolvency procedure;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • H55 - Public Economics - - National Government Expenditures and Related Policies - - - Social Security and Public Pensions
    • H12 - Public Economics - - Structure and Scope of Government - - - Crisis Management
    • H63 - Public Economics - - National Budget, Deficit, and Debt - - - Debt; Debt Management; Sovereign Debt

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