Can regional transfers buy public support? Evidence from EU structural policy

Osterloh, Steffen

Can regional transfers buy public support? Evidence from EU structural policy

No 11-011, ZEW Discussion Papers from ZEW - Leibniz Centre for European Economic Research

Abstract: Regional transfers are assumed to have an impact on the public opinion towards the benefactor, but empirical evidence is still scarce. In this paper we test this hypothesis for the structural funds of the European Union (EU) by combining detailed data on regional transfers with public opinion surveys. A positive impact of transfers on public support for the EU can be confirmed. Moreover, we scrutinize the role of awareness of being a recipient of funds in this process. In particular, we find that the impact of the amount of transfers on the individual's awareness is heterogenous and particularly depends on education. Finally, we show that the type of information source which arouses the citizen's awareness of the transfers affects the impact on his opinion.

Keywords: Regional policy; vote purchasing; public opinion; European Union (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D72 F59 H73 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2011
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-cdm, nep-eur and nep-pol
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (11)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.econstor.eu/bitstream/10419/44462/1/654045593.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
Working Paper: Can Regional Transfers Buy Public Support? Evidence from EU Structural Policy (2011)
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:zbw:zewdip:11011

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in ZEW Discussion Papers from ZEW - Leibniz Centre for European Economic Research Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics ().