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Narrative Entanglement

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  • Brzezinski, Adam
  • Garicano, Luis

Abstract

Politicians rarely acknowledge trade-offs between a policy’s economic and non-economic effects. We show that incentives to suppress such trade-offs also generate narrative entanglement: a shock to one policy dimension leads politicians to update their whole narrative bundle, even on unrelated dimensions, which shapes equilibrium policy. We test our theory by analyzing all speeches from the 9th European Parliament (2019–2024) with LLMs. We find entangled narratives across different policy domains, and show that following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine politicians adjusted narratives on both the economic and environmental effects of climate policy, in line with our theory.

Suggested Citation

  • Brzezinski, Adam & Garicano, Luis, 2025. "Narrative Entanglement," CEPR Discussion Papers 20829, Centre for Economic Policy Research.
    • Handle: RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:20829
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    File URL: https://cepr.org/publications/DP20829
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    Keywords

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    JEL classification:

    • D72 - Microeconomics - - Analysis of Collective Decision-Making - - - Political Processes: Rent-seeking, Lobbying, Elections, Legislatures, and Voting Behavior
    • D91 - Microeconomics - - Micro-Based Behavioral Economics - - - Role and Effects of Psychological, Emotional, Social, and Cognitive Factors on Decision Making
    • Q58 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Environmental Economics - - - Environmental Economics: Government Policy

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