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What explains public support for Canada's supply management regime?

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  • Ryan Cardwell
  • Chad Lawley

Abstract

We investigate elasticity of policy preferences to information about the economic effects of policy tools. We survey approximately 5,000 people and ask a referendum question about liberalizing supply management in Canada. Supply management regulates production and marketing of dairy and poultry products in Canada through production restrictions, regulated pricing, and import barriers. Support varies widely across political‐party affiliation, and across individuals with different views on redistributive fiscal policies, international trade liberalization, and perceptions of how supply management affects food prices. We estimate causal effects of information about personal costs and distributional effects of supply management on support for the policy in a randomized experiment. Treated participants receive personalized information about how supply management affects household grocery costs, and information about the policy's distributional effects. Policy support is responsive to information treatments, but these effects are small relative to differences in support across individuals' views on economic issues such as international trade and fiscal redistribution policies. We find little evidence of heterogenous treatment effects across respondent characteristics, suggesting the effects of our information treatments are not tied to views about political and economic issues. Qu'est‐ce qui explique le soutien public au régime de gestion de l'offre au Canada? Nous étudions l'élasticité des préférences politiques en fonction des données sur les effets économiques des instruments politiques. Nous avons sondé environ 5 000 personnes pour leur poser une question référendaire sur la libéralisation de la gestion de l'offre au Canada. La gestion de l'offre régule la production et la commercialisation des produits laitiers et des produits de volaille au Canada par des restrictions concernant la production, la tarification réglementée et des obstacles à l'importation. Le soutien varie considérablement en fonction de l'appartenance à un parti politique et de l'opinion de chacun sur les politiques fiscales de redistribution, la libéralisation du commerce international et la perception de l'influence de la gestion de l'offre sur le prix des denrées alimentaires. Nous étudions les effets de causalité de l'information sur les coûts personnels et les effets de répartition de la gestion de l'offre sur le soutien de la politique dans une expérience randomisée. Les participants du groupe expérimental ont reçu des renseignements personnalisés sur les effets de la gestion de l'offre sur la facture d'épicerie des ménages et sur les effets de répartition de la politique. L'appui à la politique est sensible à la prise en compte de l'information, mais les effets sont faibles par rapport aux différences d'opinion des personnes sur des questions économiques comme les politiques sur le commerce international et la redistribution fiscale. Il y a peu de données probantes sur les effets hétérogènes du traitement en fonction des caractéristiques des répondants, ce qui suggère que les effets de la prise en compte de l'information ne sont pas liés aux opinions sur les enjeux politiques et économiques.

Suggested Citation

  • Ryan Cardwell & Chad Lawley, 2025. "What explains public support for Canada's supply management regime?," Canadian Journal of Economics/Revue canadienne d'économique, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 58(2), pages 580-608, May.
    • Handle: RePEc:wly:canjec:v:58:y:2025:i:2:p:580-608
    DOI: 10.1111/caje.70009
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