Who Supports the ECB? Evidence from Eurobarometer Survey Data

Etienne Farvaque, Muhammad Azmat Hayat () and Alexander Mihailov ()
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Muhammad Azmat Hayat: Department of Economics, University of Lille 1

No em-dp2011-04, Economics Discussion Papers from Department of Economics, University of Reading

Abstract: This paper addresses empirically the still debated issue of the legitimacy of the European Central Bank (ECB) with regard to European polities, presenting evidence on public opinion support for the ECB as elicited from responses in the recent waves of the Eurobarometer survey. We employ a rich set of potential determinants, combining macroeconomic and socio-demographic data in logistic regressions, to explain trust in the ECB. We find that people with higher level of income and education and centre to right-wing political orientation tend to support the ECB, as well as people with optimistic expectations on the economic situation. Moreover, our results indicate that socio-demographic determinants of trust in the ECB dominate macroeconomic ones, in particular inflation performance, by a considerable margin of magnitude and in a quite robust way. The policy relevance of such results is important for ECB's communication strategy with the EU public, especially in the years ahead of likely reforms of the European Monetary Union (EMU).

Keywords: European Central Bank; communication; legitimacy; determinants of trust; Eurobarometer survey; logistic regression (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C23 E58 F33 H11 Z13 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 40 pages
Date: 2011-07-08
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-cba, nep-eec, nep-mac, nep-mon and nep-pol
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (10)

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Related works:
Journal Article: Who Supports the ECB? Evidence from Eurobarometer Survey Data (2017)
Working Paper: Who Supports the ECB ? Evidence from Eurobarometer Survey Data (2017)
Working Paper: Who Supports the ECB? Evidence from Eurobarometer Survey Data (2012)
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